The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the removal of universities and other tertiary institutions in the country from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information Systems (IPPIS), allowing the schools to deal with the salary issues of their staff internally.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman Tahir, disclosed this to correspondents at the end of the council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa in Abuja, noting that the payment system had eroded the institution’s autonomy.
He said the council relieved management of tertiary institutions of the burden of obtaining approval and waiver from the Office of the Head of Service for recruitment, noting that they are now free to deal with their recruitment internally.
According to the Minister, the exemption of tertiary institutions from the IPPIS platform and from seeking Head of Civil Service’s authority for recruitment would allow the institutions.
He said FEC took the decision to remove the institutions from the system because of its concern for efficiency and the management of the institutions.
According to him, apart from the opposition to the payment system by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the IPPIS issue had proved time consuming for university vice chancellors, “dragging the efficiency of the management of the institutions.”
He stressed that ASUU will be happy over the FEC’s decision since they have been agitating for it.
The minister explained that as the tertiary institutions are governed by laws, they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.
Tahir stated: “Simply, the president and the council are just concerned about efficiency of management of the universities and so it has nothing to do with integrity or options of platforms.
“The president cannot understand why Vice Chancellors should be leaving their duty post and run to Abuja to get staff enlisted on IPPIS when they get recruited.
“The basic concern is that universities are governed by laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects and most respects and the IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in accordance with their act.”
Expatiating on the issue, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, explained that the IPPIS exemption is a big relief to the institutions.
Recall that ASUU had in 2020 gone on strike for about eight months in protest against the implementation of IPPIS
He added: “Today, the universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the integrated personnel payroll and information system. You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.
“Today, council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward; the universities, like the Honorable Minister of Education has said and other tertiary institutions; the polytechnics and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.
“What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPIS.”
Also speaking at the briefing, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, revealed that FEC also approved a contract for the purchase of aviation equipment worth N6.1 billion.
Before the commencement of the council meeting, President Tinubu administered the oath of office on the newly appointed chairmen of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Professor Tunji Olaopa and Dr. Musa Adamu, respectively.
Credit: The Nigeria Lawyer