By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Federal Government will stop paying salaries of university workers not captured on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) from November, 2020.
This was contained in a memo from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), addressed to all Vice Chancellors through the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigeria Federal Universities.
The letter dated October 8, 2020, with reference number: OAGF/IPPIS/446/1/159, and titled, “Stoppage of Salaries of University Staff That Are Yet To Be Enrolled On IPPIS Platform,” was signed by the the Director of IPPIS, Dr. Nsikak Ben.
The IPPIS scheme, one of the Federal Government’s reform initiatives is designed to create a centralised payroll system for federal workers, including university lecturers, to ease storage and retrieval of personnel records for administrative purposes.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last year directed the ministry of finance to ensure that all employees of the Federal Government are enrolled on the IPPIS platform.
The Accountant-General of the Federation Mr Ahmed Idris had disclosed that out of the 94,990 university workers enrolled as of March this year, about 8,146 of them were academic staff while the balance of 86, 844 were non-academic staff.
However, some branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in federal universities across the country had resisted the move arguing that it was against university autonomy. The union had threatened to mobilise its members for a nationwide strike.
The OAGF said in the memo that any member of staff who has not enrolled on the IPPIS, either as a result of Study Leave (with pay), Maternity Leave or on Medical ground, will no longer
appear on the IPPIS payroll with effect from November, 2020 payroll except such Staff presents himself/herself for the biometric data capture.
The letter reads, “I am directed to inform you that any Staff of your Institution who has not enrolled on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, either as a result of Study Leave (with pay), Maternity Leave or on Medical ground, will no longer appear on the IPPIS payroll with effect from November, 2020 payroll except such Staff presents himseif/herself for the biometric data capture at the office of the Accountant- General of the Federation, Abuja with an introduction letter/IPPIS Enrollment forms duly endorsed by the principal authorities of the Institution.
“In addition, all supporting documents should include evidence of six months salary bank statement. In view of the above, kindly inform your staff in this category to urgently avail themselves for the biometric data capture at the OAGF.
“However, exemption may only
be given where institutions provide evidence of Study Leave, stating the duration to justify such persons being retained on the payroll.”
