Calls for resolution to ongoing university payroll debacle

Unhappiness over the new electronic payroll system for Nigerian university staff is continuing, with all levels of staff including vice-chancellors, registrars and other top administrators reporting problems with their salary payments.

At a recent virtual meeting held by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, participants said they had noticed incorrect deductions for the housing scheme and national health insurance featured on their individual salary advice slips since the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) had been introduced. Some participants also highlighted what they called exorbitant tax deductions which were not in accordance with rates negotiated by university-based unions.

One such vice-chancellor, who requested anonymity, said he had been reliably informed that the Committee of Registrars and the Committee of Bursars had also met to discuss the issue.

“We [the vice-chancellors] resolved that we would meet and present to the officials of the National Universities Commission our views on this subject with a view to averting a crisis on the campuses. The resolution of this sensitive matter is imperative before the new academic session commences after the coronavirus shutdowns. I am reliably informed that the committee of registrars and that of the bursars have also met on this subject matter,” the vice-chancellor said.

University staff unions have also expressed dissatisfaction over the IPPIS.

The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) General Secretary Peters Adeyemi said despite NASU members agreeing to migrate to the new payment scheme, members have encountered problems with the payment of their monthly salaries and allowances since February. The union has declared an industrial dispute over the matter, issuing a 21-day ultimatum to the government to address their grievances.

Adeyemi told University World News that grievances against the workings of IPPIS include non-deduction of checkoff dues, non-deduction of cooperative dues, failure to pay approved allowances as agreed by both NASU and the government as contained in the 2009 Memorandum of Understanding, non-payment of salaries to some of its members since February 2020, and shortfalls in payments to some of its members.

He said NASU had met twice this year with Minister of Labour Chris Ngige with the aim of finding an amicable resolution of these issues. “The minister promised to look into our complaints within a few days. Yet no concrete solution is on the horizon. Without our checkoff dues, and cooperative dues being deducted at source and remitted to the bank account of the union, the activities of our union will soon be crippled,” he said.

The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) said they have also had problems during the four months that their members have been integrated into IPPIS.

According to the Guardian newspaper in a statement jointly signed by chairman Broderick Osewa and secretary Enoma Aigbovoriuwa, the association said the system had removed hazard allowances, call duty allowances, responsibility allowances and shift duty allowances – all of which were part of the Memorandum of Action the federal government signed with SSANU in 2009.

The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) is also negatively affected. Its national president, Ibeji Nwokoma, reportedly described the migration to IPPIS as having been “full of woes”.

“We are confronted with an outcry by our members about IPPIS operations since last February. All allowances have been removed by this new payroll system. It is important to note here that our enrolment into IPPIS was done with the best of intentions and in the overall interest of the generality of our members,” said Nwokoma in the Vanguard newspaper.

“If IPPIS continues to show signs of unpreparedness to accommodate the peculiarities of the universities, the union will be left with no option but to reappraise our enrolment into the platform.”

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has consistently been at the forefront of opposition to the IPPIS from the time the federal government decided to introduce the new payroll system to the universities.

An ASUU official who asked for anonymity said: “Initially, other sister unions embraced this new system. ASUU warned them about the negative consequences of this system, in the sense that it undermined the laws which created the university.”

The official said the law that created universities also spelt out how university teachers and other non-teaching staff were to be recruited and remunerated. The law gave governing councils rules and regulations on, among other things, how to pay and fire staff guilty of corruption.

“Government also has, by law, its representatives on all the governing councils. Thus, the introduction of a [new] … administrative directive on remuneration into the laws of the university system is illegal and strange.”

He said it was now evident that all university-based trade unions were not comfortable with IPPIS and its operations.

“We warned about any romance with this payroll system. We were scorned and derided as trouble makers. Even the principal officers of the universities who cajoled the leadership of the industrial unions to comply with IPPIS are now regretting their moves,” said the official.

Meanwhile, members of industrial unions have been forced to approach their various cooperative unions for loans to take care of their families and dependants. These cooperative organisations are buoyant as a result of monthly contributions from their members over the years.

“Since February when President Muhammadu Buhari ordered that those not registered with IPPIS should not be paid, members went to their cooperative organisations for loans without interest. Through these loans they are surviving”, said Dr Wale Suenu, deputy chairman of the ASUU Lagos State University branch.

Dialogue and conflict resolution

In an interview with University World News, Rebecca Akpan, a computer engineer and coordinator of Rainbow Goodwill, an education sector NGO, said a solution to the lingering crisis between the government and the university-based trade unions was now urgent.

“I have been following the events in the university sector. I am of the view that the divergence between the government and the trade unions is surmountable. Both the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) proposed by ASUU and the government’s IPPIS are software customised from open source resources.

"The two parties should agree to harmonise their differences and create another software or remodel either UTAS or IPPIS with a view to catering for the specific and peculiar interests of the university system. The open source website should provide the solution within a week. Many organisations patronise open source websites,” she said.

Akpan said the crisis, which was “tearing apart” and overheating the polity of the university system, was unnecessary and should stop because the solution to the conflict is available as long as there is goodwill and honesty of purpose from both sides.

“I would meet the stakeholders to offer free of charge my expertise as a computer and software engineer,” she said.