The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said that it would immediately activate its resolution on a no pay, no work in response to the directive by the federal government to stop payment of lecturers salaries who failed to register on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), Thisday Report.
ASUU had opposed the implementation of IPPIS in the tertiary institutions, saying it would among other things, infringe on the university autonomy and that it was out of tune with the operational peculiarities of the university.
ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said: “We don’t have a copy of that letter yet, until it is confirmed but our union has an answer to that. We are not bothered. We have a long standing resolution. It is very simple, we had a resolution reached at the Federal University Technology Minna, that if government should stop salaries of our members on the account of IPPIS memo which we have rejected and to truncate ongoing dialogue, that we will not hesitate to invoke our long standing resolution of no pay, no work, that is our response,” he said.
The federal government had suspended the release of the funds for the payment of salaries of workers of tertiary institutions who have not enrolled on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) as their salaries would be paid on the IPPIS platform with effect from January.
In a letter by the Director of IPPIS at the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Mr. Olusegun Olufehinti, the OAGF requested the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, to order the stoppage of release of funds for January salaries of the federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
The letter with reference number: OAGF/IPPIS/19/11/54 and titled: ‘Request for Stoppage of Release of Funds for January Salaries to Federal Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education’, was addressed to the minister.
“I am directed to inform you that the preparation of January 2020 salary payroll and warrants of the federal tertiary institutions are ongoing and will be ready for submission on or before January 29, 2020. This is to give effect to the directive of the federal government that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) drawing personal cost for the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) should be enrolled on IPPIS,” the memo partly read.