By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Federal Government has explained that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is robust enough to accommodate and efficiently address all genuine concerns and peculiarities in the Nigerian universities.
The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris said this when the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities visited him in Abuja.
Reacting to concerns raised by the Vice Chancellors based on the recent enrolment of university staff into the IPPIS, the Accountant General assured that ‘”all rules and peculiarities in the universities that are recognized by the government will be accommodated and implemented through IPPIS”.
“All the peculiarities should be stated, all the rules of engagement should equally be stated; 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.
In statement, by OAGF Director of Press, Henshaw Ogubike on Tuesday, Idris noted the objection by the academic staff of the universities to the IPPIS is unfounded.
He explained that the Federal Government had, 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 further 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.
Idris explained that the 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 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 commended the Vice Chancellors for the initiative to reach out to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation on the contentious issue of enrollment of university staff on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
While soliciting the cooperation of the Vice-Chancellors with the government, the AGF said “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”.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof Muhammad Bello, had requested the AGF to assist them in resolving their concerns about the IPPIS.
