IPPIS Explained As Though You’re In Primary 5 And Why ASUU Is Against It

The Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, known as just IPPIS is one of the most popular terms to come out of everything that has to do with policy-making, Buhari’s anti-corruption drive, the civil service, and ASUU Strike. Perhaps, it is the latter’s involvement that elevated it to the top of the national discourse.

But what is IPPIS and why does it matter?

This is the goal of this post, to find all there is to be known about IPPIS and we are not going to do it the hard way, we would see ourselves as a teacher in a classroom facing primary 5 pupils, that simple. But when it gets hard, at any stage of your explication, know that we are aware of geniuses in elementary level with the mind of university undergraduates.

What is IPPIS?

IPPIS can be defined as a system of payment, like a register but online, that carries the names of everyone that works for the federal government and the amount to be paid them in order to eliminate loopholes.

These loopholes include paying ghost workers (i.e people who do not work for an organization but have their names in the payroll and get paid every month to the benefit of a corrupt executive in the organization), paying someone twice by mistake or by corrupt design, paying people who have two or more federal jobs at the same time which is illegal and selfish.

IPPIS was developed in 2007 under the office of the Accountant-General of the Federal but as with many Nigerian laws implementation was the problem for more than a decade.

Merits of IPPIS

The merits of IPPIS are plentiful but we can sum them into two broad ones.

1. It saves the government money by eliminating overpayments, payments to unexisting workers, and people with multiple jobs.

2. IPPIS makes it easy for the government to collect taxes and levies due to them automatically rather than having to go through the hassles of collecting these levies manually.

Considering how much the Nigerian economy needs support, it is great to have a system that saves money and helps make money for the commonwealth.

Why ASUU is against the system?

In March 2020, ASUU embarked on strike action, citing many grievances as the reason. These grievances may be true but the key point behind their downing of tools can be summed in five letters – IPPIS. The strike went on till December 2020, breaking the 20-year record held by the 2013 strike that went from June to December.

The pain of the strike is glossed by the coronavirus pandemic that kept schools closed for six months. Without the pandemic, ASUU claims the strike may not have lasted that long. They may be right but we can never say for sure. What we could say with 100% certainty is that ASUU is against the IPPIS portal.

Now, why is that so?

According to ASUU chairman, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, IPPIS, firstly, has no backing by the law establishing the university system in the country.

“The introduction of IPPIS is not backed by law,” he pointed out. “The Union’s position is that there are extant legal provisions and negotiated agreements arising from the nature and peculiarities of Nigerian universities, which make IPPIS unnecessary and inapplicable to the universities.”

Secondly, ASUU is arguing that the IPPIS does not fully cover all the staff lists of the university setup. According to their chairman, “There are certain peculiarities which IPPIS does not cater for in the university system. One of these is sabbatical staff, adjunct lecturers, contract staff, and other academic allowances for working in more than one institution.”

Thirdly, ASUU claims that the IPPIS portal is not strong enough to cater to the entirety of university lecturers in Nigeria. It claims that technological hitches have left the lecturers who have been paid with the system facing a lot of errors so much that senior lecturers have complained about being paid the salaries of a far junior lecturer.

During the strike, check government stand on IPPIS

Fourthly, ASUU has tried the payment system and are worried that its extortive nature has made it impossible for them to continue on it. On this, their chairman said thus: “When ASUU was forced to get paid through IPPIS, salaries were cut because of malicious deductions most of which were not consented to. A professor who’d receive 460,000 naira through normal payment means hardly gets 416,000 naira now due to these deductions that can’t be explained.”

In essence, ASUU is saying that the corruption and inefficiencies that IPPIS is supposed to get rid of have found their way into the system and this time, it is deliberate, perpetrated by people behind the system to steal, to frustrate, and to punish ASUU members.

The explanation from the government that these deductions are taken to cover their housing, health insurance, and tax does not seem to move ASUU.

If you must have us in a portal, ASUU insists to FG, then adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS). FG would not budge on IPPIS which has been adopted by the police, paramilitary agencies, departments, and ministries. Why should universities be on a different platform?

ASUU called off their nine-month strike in December 2020, just before Christmas, claiming that FG has waivered IPPIS for them. FG claims that this is not true, saying that the system was only paused in order to think up a more lasting system-solution for the lecturers.

We haven’t heard the last of ASUU and IPPIS.

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