About 96,090 out of the 137,016 academic and non-academic staff of federal government-owned universities have so far been captured in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari last year, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said on Thursday.
The minister said this at a meeting between President Buhari and the leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) led by its national president Professor Biodun Ogunyemi at the State House in Abuja.
The minister urged ASUU to encourage the remaining 40,926 members to comply with the presidential directive on capturing all federal government employees in the IPPIS.
She said a desk has been opened in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation for registration of university staff, assuring that peculiarities of the tertiary institutions would be accommodated.
The minister said many anomalies were discovered in the university structures that have contributed to the increased cost burden, which include staff working and earning pay in more than one university, contract staff on payroll of the government, tax reductions on PAYEE and multiple employments.
She said some universities had rushed to recruit more staff before the IPPIS registration commenced,m which was detected.
“While it is clear that ASUU has peculiarities, it should be recognised and rightly accommodated, and the allowances will be made, and not leaving the university out of IPPIS because of the peculiarities,’’ she said.
In his remarks, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, urged ASUU to comply with IPPIS in national interest as his office was already in the process of streamlining all issues of human resources in government.
Also speaking, Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu, and the Minister of Labour and Employment. Dr Chris Ngige, assured that the federal government was committed to improving the educational sector, promising to work closely with ASUU.
