BREAKING: Tinubu’s Government Removes Universities, Poly Other Tertiary Institutions From IPPIS

The Federal Government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the removal of universities and other tertiary institutions in the country from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Systems (IPPS), allowing the schools to deal with the salary issues of their staff internally.

VerseNews reports that the approval for the exemption was given by The Federal Executive Council at its meeting on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa Abuja.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents alongside other ministers on the outcome of the FEC meeting, and said this takes immediate effect.

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 IPPS issue had proved time consuming for university vice chancellors, “dragging the efficiency of the management of the institutions.”

The minister explained that as laws govern the tertiary institutions, they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.

Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities has lamented the inefficiency of the IPPS and proposed the use of the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) and Universities’ Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (UP3S) to pay salaries for workers in tertiary institutions.

The UTAS is a payroll system developed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.

The UP3S was also developed by the Joint Action Committee of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (JAC) for same purpose.

IPPIS which was conceptualized in October 2006 by the government as one of its Reform Programme, to curb corruption such as payment of salaries to ghost workers, as being said to have contributed to about 75% of problems affecting Nigeria’s university system.