Corruption: ASUU challenges FG to conduct public integrity test for IPPIS

The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo( AE-FUNAI) branch, Tuesday called on the federal government to conduct a public integrity test for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) of its members nationwide.

The association also challenged the anti-corruption mantra of the government at the center.

The union in a statement by its media team asks FG to conduct a public integrated test for IPPIS as in University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

The union frowned at what it described as lies, half-truths that have been told by the federal government on the true situation of things.

The statement reads in part: “Over the past three months, the Nigerian news space has been inundated with tantrums, lies, or half-truths mischievously peddled by four ministers or their agents in government against ASUU, after the latter rolled over its strike yet again, over the government’s insensitivity and inability to honor its agreement with the union. The key components of the lecturer’s demands are improved conditions of service, deployment of UTAS as the payment platform for university workers, and revitalisation.

“Almost all the time spent, or wasted so far on this current strike has been dissipated on testing and counter-testing the homegrown UTAS, developed free of charge by ASUU and presented to the government as a preferred means of paying university workers, as against the foreign, profusely error-prone IPPIS, which is roundly guilty of amputating the salaries of university workers. As of the last count, the aggregate performance integrity test result of UTAS stood at 99.3%, whereas the government has failed to subject IPPIS to even half of the integrity tests it insisted that UTAS must pass.

“ASUU challenges the government to conduct a public integrity test for IPPIS the same way UTAS has gone through if it is sincere in its anti-corruption mantra.”