Amidst speculations that the Federal Government will withhold the December salary of the academic staff of federal universities who failed to enrol on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) after the expiration of the December 7 enrolment deadline, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said there is no specific instruction yet to that effect.
Also, the Director of IPPIS in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Olufehinti Olusegun, said that a decision had not yet been taken on whether or not to give more time to ASUU members to enrol on the IPPIS payment platform.
ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said that the union was not aware of any order of the government directing the stoppage of university workers’ salaries.
The Federal Government and ASUU had disagreed over the enrolment of university lecturers on IPPIS, with the union asking its members not to enrol into the scheme.
ASUU had said the application of IPPIS would go against the autonomy the universities had fought hard to achieve and also harm the professional interest of its members.
On its part, the Federal Government described IPPIS as a well-thought out scheme, which will make salary payment a seamless exercise while ending all ambiguities that is associated with the old system.
As the Federal Government’s enrolment deadline elapsed, there was heightened fears that the face-off might turn to a full-blown industrial action, which might disrupt academic calendars of the country’s tertiary institutions.
