The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has unveiled the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) which it developed as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
In a statement made on Tuesday, August 18, 2020, ASUU revealed the software for UTAS and demonstrated to the Minister of Education and senior management of the ministry how the system works.
While speaking during a press conference at the Gwagwalada campus of the University of Abuja, the national president of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, maintained that the association would not suspend its ongoing strike until the federal government honors its 2019 agreement.
Ogunyemi said:
“It is our sincere hope that the government would not renege on its promise because the benefits of UTAS to the university system (both public and private) cannot be found in any other software in Nigeria today. Now that the union is close to meeting the government’s demand on an alternative to IPPIS, it is our sincere hope that the substantive issues in the ongoing strike action would be given the desired attention.”
The ASUU leader further lamented the five months salary of their members at the University of Maiduguri and the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture still being withheld by the Accountant-General of the Federation due to non-registration on IPPIS.
“Thousands of other academics across the Universities are suffering the same fate. So, while we counsel that government at both the federal and state levels must meet the Taskforce specified guidelines for reopening of educational institutions, we insist that all the arrears of the withheld salaries of our members in federal and state Universities must be paid immediately to pave for further discussion on the outstanding issues in the Memorandum of Action of February 7, 2019.”
