IPPIS will accommodate lecturers genuine concerns

By Nduka Chiejina (Assistant Editor)

The Federal Government has assured university lecturers that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) will accommodate and efficiently address all their genuine concerns and peculiarities.

A statement from the Office Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), said the AGF Mr. Ahmed Idris, gave the assurance when the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities visited him in Abuja.

The Accountant General of the Federation, while responding to concerns raised by the Vice Chancellors on the recent enrolment of university staff into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), assured that ‘all rules and peculiarities in the universities that are recognized by the government will be accommodated and implemented through IPPIS’.

He directed the University Vice Chancellors to get their lecturers to state all the peculiarities rules of engagement equally; we are ready to go by the rules of engagement. All the rules that are recognized by the government in the universities, we will go by these rules, none will be set aside’, he said.

Idris said the objection by the academic staff of the universities to the IPPIS is unfounded as the Federal Government has, during many meetings with the universities, assured them that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) was not to take away the autonomy of the universities, but to make the management of personnel more efficient.

He stated that the practice where universities recruited staff not minding whether their budget would accommodate such employment was responsible for the issue of shortfall in personnel revenue.

He explained that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) would help the universities solve the problem of shortfall in personnel revenue as the recruitment and remuneration of staff would be more efficient.

The Accountant General of the Federation said at the end of the last enrollment exercise, a total of 8,146 academic and 86, 844 non-academic staff of federal universities were enrolled into the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

He said the figures represented more than 70% of the staff of federal universities.

Idris solicited the cooperation of the Vice-Chancellors with the government, ‘as the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and other financial reform initiatives aimed at entrenching probity and transparency in the system have come to stay’.

Chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof Muhammad Bello, reported challenges encountered during the just concluded enrollment of university staff into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and requested the Accountant General of the Federation to help resolve them.