President Muhammadu Buhari has allayed the fears of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in embracing the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the federal government.

This was the outcome of a meeting by the Union’s National President, Biodun Ogunyemi and President Buhari on Thursday in Abuja.

The major focus at the meeting was the submission of a presentation and IPPIS enrolment which had been greeted with partial compliance nationwide by ASUU members nationwide.

Ogunyemi who led his colleagues to the meeting kept mute after the meeting which started at 3 pm and ended at a few minutes after 4 pm,

A member of the Union who was privy to the meeting hinted that a wide range of issues were raised at the closed-door meeting.

Ogunyemi accompanied by ASUU Vice President Victor Osodeke and other members of the leadership of the Union, submitted a presentation to President Buhari.

ASUU had kicked against its inclusion on IPPIS which is a directive from President Buhari.

Mrs Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, says out of the 137,016 academic and non-academic staff members of the Universities, 96,090 have enrolled in the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

She said a desk had been opened in the office of the Accountant-General of the federation for registration of University staff, assuring them that peculiarities of the tertiary institutions will be accommodated.

The minister pointed out that many anomalies were discovered in the University structures that had contributed to the increased cost burden in the Universities.

These, she said, include staff working and earning pay in more than one University, contract staff on payroll of the government, tax reductions on PAYEE and multiple employments.

Ahmed said some Universities had rushed to recruit more staff before the IPPIS registration commenced, which was then detected.

“While it is clear that ASUU has peculiarities, it should be recognised and rightly accommodated, and allowances will be made, and not leaving the University out of IPPIS because of the peculiarities,’’ she said.

Recall that a faction of the union, Congress of University Academics (CONUA), has, however, mandated its members to comply with the Federal Government’s directive; and while some universities have complied with the directive, others are yet to do so because of ASUU’s stance.

President Buhari had directed that all ministries, departments, agencies of government, including staff of the Police, the Armed Forces and educational institutions be included in the IPPIS.

The Union had developed an alternative solution called University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which it claims is equivalent to the IPPIS.

Recall that Buhari had during the 2020 budget presentation at the National Assembly on October 8, 2019, ordered all public sector workers to register for the IPPIS to save cost and fight corruption.

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