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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Federal Government has exempted universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) payment platform.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Maman, disclosed this after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the heads of these institutions also got relief to embark on recruitment exercise without recourse to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
The minister said the president directed that the heads of tertiary instutions should taken out of the IPPIS platform, which made recruitment difficult, to ensure efficient management of the institutions.
“Simply, the president and the council is just concerned about efficiency of management of the universities and so it has nothing to do with integrity or options of platforms.
“The president cannot understand why vice chancellors should be leaving their duty post and run to Abuja to get staff enlisted on IPPIS when they get recruited.
“The basic concern is that universities are governed by laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects and the IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in accordance with their act,” Maman said.
Also speaking, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris, said: “Today, the universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System. You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.
“Today, council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward, the universities like the Honourable Minister of Education has said and other tertiary institutions, the polytechnics and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.
“What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPIS.”
Recall that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been at loggerheads with the Federal Government for some years over IPPIS.