IPPIS: Accountant General acted illegally, scheme unconstitutional, says ASUU

.Lawan frowns at Govt inability to enforce agreements

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has alluded to the fact that Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris, acted illegally by insisting that university lecturers be enlisted on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

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This is as the university teachers declared the payment scheme unconstitutional, hence the union members could not be coerced into the scheme.

ASUU declared that technically speaking, IPPlS is a scam and that it creates more problems than it resolves to buttress.

Stating ASUU’s positions on Monday, its President, Prof. Biodun, who led the officials of ASUU to an interface with the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, at the National Assembly, said IPPIS is a violation of university autonomy.

According to ASUU, the broad goal of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), according to the Accountant-General of the Federation, is to ensure transparency, accountability and probity, with its specific objectives as Centralisation of payroll systems of the Federal Government, facilitating easy storage, updating and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pension processing.

Others include to ascertain the actual personnel emoluments of the Federal Government, aid the manpower planning and budgeting and comply with global best practice. ‘

 Ogunyemi said: “The centralisation of payroll is a violation of University Autonomy. It contradicts the principle of the superiority of the Governing Council in the control and management of university funds, and employment and promotion of staff.

“Universities all over the world have a tradition of independence and complete separation from the structure of the civil service.

“The attempt to bring Nigerian Universities under a general practice that is meant for the civil service will not only undermine University Autonomy; it will also infringe on Academic Freedom, and consequently retard the efforts of our country to develop the much sought-after knowledge-based economy.

“In particular, ASUU would like to draw the attention of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) to the Principle of University Autonomy as enshrined in section 2AA of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Act 2003.

“The powers of the Council shall be exercised, as in the Law and Statutes of each university and to that extent, establishment circulars that are inconsistent with the Laws and Statutes of the university shall not apply to the universities”.

Speaking on the lack of constitutional backing for the IPPIS, ASUU said: “It is clear from this provision that the circular from the OAGF directing the implementation of IPPIS violates the provisions of the Establishment Act of this university (and all other Federal Universities.

“It is noteworthy that, contrary to the Law expressly backing the Governing Councils of each Federal University to exercise full control over the finances of the universities, IPPIS lacks constitutional backing; neither is it supported by any Act of the National Assembly.

“The proposed forceful enrollment of staff of Universities in the IPPIS will amount to subjecting the universities to the direction and control of OAGF with respect to the payment of staff remunerations, salaries and wages, allowances, etc.

“The OAGF has no constitutional or legal backing to so direct the affairs of Universities, the latter being creations of Statutes via the Acts establishing the Universities.

“It should be recalled that the powers of the Auditor General for the Federation to direct Audit of Public Accounts as provided under Section 85 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not extend to Statutory Corporations, Commissions, Authorities, Agencies and Bodies established by an Act of the National Assembly.

“It is because of this provision that the Auditor General does not directly audit the accounts of Federal Universities. This is also the case with the OAGF, with payments made to the staff of the Federal Universities through IPPIS. Neither the constitution nor any Act of the National Assembly confers such powers on the OAGF”.

He further argued that “the OAGF has been very clear about the status of IPPIS that it is a policy of government, backed by a Presidential Directive. This statement reinforces the position of ASUU on IPPIS that IPPIS is not backed by law and cannot therefore be used in whatever guise or circumstance to override laws and Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Allowing the Implementation of IPPIS in the University system would be tantamount to the OAGF committing a grave illegality, which would lead to anarchy within the system.

The body however denied encouraging corruption by rejecting the IPPIS, saying “for all intents and purposes, therefore, it cannot be said that ASUU’s opposition to IPPIS is an endorsement of corruption in the Nigerian University System.

“Rather, it is government’s inaction or failure to implement the outcomes of visitation exercises that is encouraging corruption. In the recent past, successive governments had set up Visitation Panels whose recommendations were never put to effective use.

“A clear example is the University of Abuja where a Special Visitation Panel was set up in 2012. ASUU took a special interest in the matter because our Union thought it would send the appropriate warning signals to other universities that were not properly managed.

“We monitored the processing of the report to the point of the White Paper. Unfortunately, to the chagrin of our Union, nothing came out of the exercise!

Faulting the scheme, ASUU said the timelines in the discharge of university functions may lead to the monetisation of annual/accumulated leave for staff that are unable to enjoy such leave. This is not captured by the IPPIS. 

“The IPPIS cannot address specific processes of promotion of academics; for example, the promotion exercise in the Professional Cadre, which is subject to external assessment that may last for several months. In such cases, when the outcome of the exercise is returned positive, the beneficiary is paid arrears from the beginning of the assessment process. But this cannot be captured by IPPIS.

“The IPPIS does not recognise the 70 years retirement age of academics in the professorial cadre, and 65 years for those in the non-professorial cadre, as against the 60 years in the civil service.

“The IPPIS will upset the fragile balance in the utilisation of academics across the Nigerian University System. At present, to supplement their shortfall most universities that lack adequate academic staff employ the services of visiting scholars from other universities. This cannot be taken care of by the IPPIS”, the union argued.

The union however advised government on how to end corruption.

It said: “If the government wants to curb corrupt practices, through the payroll and personnel management, the best pathway is to make the Governing Councils work. The exercise of the power of the Visitor, in respect of the visitation exercise as explicitly stated in law which ASUU has continued to advocate, should be activated.

“Nigerian universities have capacity to develop their own platform in place of IPPIS, with different levels of control, which can be accessed periodically to assess compliance with the regulations on transparency and accountability by each university. We have seen this practicalised in other universities in Africa, including the University of Ghana, Legon. ASUU can coordinate the project if the government gives the approval for the development of a separate and unique salary payment system for the universities.

“ASUU strongly believes the introduction of IPPIS in the Federal Universities, which is not backed by law, will only compound the problem of regular flow of fund and personnel management, rather than resolve it.

“The Union’s position is that there are extant legal provisions and negotiated agreements, arising from the nature and peculiarities of Nigerian universities, which make IPPIS unnecessary and inapplicable to the universities”.

The Senate president, Ahmad Lawan, in his remark said: “I have been part of Committee on Education since 2005 when I was in the House of Representatives and since I became a Senator, I have always been a member of Committee on Education and Tertiary Institutions.

“I know several agreements government entered which they know they cannot enforce. Why would somebody enter agreement you know you cannot implement because of pressure?”