The Senate is looking into claims of bribery and corruption at multiple colleges involving Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) employees.
According to NAN, the alleged action by the officials resulted in the delayed capture and payment of workers of Federal Government-owned colleges who were hired as long back as 2020.
The resolution was introduced in response to a motion sponsored by Sen. Ifeanyi Ubah (YPP-Anambra) during Wednesday’s plenary.
“Urgent Need to Investigate the Alarming Cases of Delays in Payment and Allegations of Corruption Associated with the Capturing and Payment of Newly Recruited University Staff Under (IPPIS)” was the title of the motion.
Ubah noted that the Federal Government implemented the system in 2007 as a reform effort to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the preservation of federal government personnel records.
“As well as monthly payroll administration in such a way as to ensure confidence in staff emolument costs and budgeting.”
“The primary motivation for implementing IPPIS was to capitalize on existing ICT in personnel and payroll management in other parts of the world.”
“In order to eliminate ghost workers while ensuring that legitimate Federal Government employees are paid accurately and on time.”
He went on to say that since its inception in 2007, the IPPIS platform had purportedly acquired nearly two million federal government employees from 696 MDAs, including some staff from federal government-owned universities.
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“The use of IPPIS for personnel record storage and payroll management in those universities was a contentious issue between the government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) during ASUU’s recently suspended strike.”
“While the government insisted that IPPIS remains the best personnel records and payroll management system to be used for university staff record storage and payroll management.”
“The union took a different stance, recommending the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as the best option for universities in particular.”
“While the government and ASUU were unable to agree on which of the two payment platforms should be used to manage university personnel payroll.
“Recent allegations of bribery, corruption, and delayed capturing and payment of some university staff recruited as far back as 2020 through the IPPIS have called for an urgent investigation into those irregularities,” Ubah stated.
“Some of the affected staff from various universities have been accused of bribing IPPIS officials in order to be captured on the platform.”
Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate, stated in his remarks, “When the final report of the investigation comes, we will be very glad to look at them.”
“This is because the issues are very pressing; they affect the lives of future generations.”
“When we don’t fix the educational system, it means we’ll have more insecurity in the future because of the products that come out of the various universities.”
“When teachers are unhappy, their output is limited, and this impedes the growth of education in the country,” Akpabio explained.