The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has disclosed that it has developed what it called the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), which is an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) is ready for integrity tests.
The Union further added that software for UTAS was presented and demonstrated to the major stakeholders in the educational sector; the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, and senior management staff of the Ministry of Education, including the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdulrasheed Abubakar, on Monday.
The Union hinted that the Government requirement had been fulfilled in developing the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, (UTAS), and it is ready for a test run.
It also intimated that the Union is waiting on the Government to keep to its earlier promise to accept the Payroll System once it is ready, while insisting that ASUU will not call off the strike action until the lecturers’ demand are fulfilled.
The ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi while speaking on the matter, said that UTAS is a better alternative to the IPPIS, which “does not respect the nature, structure and character of the Nigerian university system.”
Ogunyemi said “We had always promised that ASUU would produce a robust software solution that would be sensitive to the uniqueness of the university system in addressing Personnel Information and Payroll System, among other things.
“Following our engagements with the Federal Government over the issues that eventually led to the decalaration of the ongoing strike action on March 17, 2020, the Government declared that it accepts in principle the UTAS, which is being developed by the ASUU and its researchers for the financial and administration of the university’s staff monthly payroll and accounting processes.”
Ogunyemi also added, that the Federal Government promised to subject UTAS to various integrity tests, for it to verify its efficacy and ascertain that its final product would pass the necessary technical attribute test as specified by NITDA.
“On our part, the ASUU had given a time frame of eighteen (18) months, for government to develop, test and develop the UTAS.
“In keeping with this promise, the ASUU is pleased to announce that the UTAS is now ready for the ‘integrity tests’ required of it by the Government. Indeed, the software was unveiled by way of demonstration to the Ministry of Education, including the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), on Monday, August 17, 2020.”
The ASUU boss explained that the new payroll device “is a web-based Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) application deployed for the overall management of university resources in an efficient transparent and accountable manner.
“It is developed to run on the concept of software as a service (SaaS), which Universities will maintain sub-domains as tenants,” he said.
Recall that ASUU had embarked on strike over the introduction of IPPIS by the Federal Government, also the Union had insisted that it would not suspend its ongoing strike until the Government honoured its 2019 agreement with the Union.
