ASUU Warns Pantami, NITDA: Stop Misinforming Nigerians About Our Payment Platform ‘UTAS’

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has insisted that its proposed payment platform, Universities Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), did not fail any integrity test as claimed by the Federal Government.

According to ASUU, UTAS is still being subjected to integrity tests. The union stated this on Sunday in a statement signed by its National President, Emmanuel Osodeke.

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“The Federal Government had referred UTAS to NITDA to conduct User Acceptance Test (UAT) and Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Test (VAPT) prior to the final deployment.

“The process, which commenced on Thursday, 3rd March 2022, is still ongoing,” he said.

Osodeke released the statement in response to the statement made by the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that UTAS had failed the integrity tests already.

“This press statement is necessitated by the need for ASUU to put the records straight on the grounds already covered in our patriotic struggle to get the government to deploy UTAS as a suitable solution for salary payment in our university system.

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“Of particular concern to us is the statement credited to both the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and Director General, NITDA to the effect that UTAS has failed the integrity test,” he added.

The ASUU President said an initial integrity test had been carried out on UTAS by NITDA on the 10th August 2021 at the National Universities Commission (NUC) where the platform was certified as a suitable solution for salary payment in universities, with a score of 85% in User Acceptance Test (UAT) according to a NITDA report.

He added that in a curious twist, however, the NITDA technical team, after conducting a comprehensive functionality test, came out to say that out of 687 test cases, 529 cases were satisfactory, 156 were queried, and 2 cases were cautioned.

“Taking this report on its face value, the percentage score is 77%. 1The question that arises from this is can 77% in any known fair evaluation system be categorized as a failure?

“Suffice it to say here that some observations and questions were raised by NITDA to which UTAS technical team has to provide clarification.

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“As we speak, our engagement with NITDA over the second round of testing continues,” he said.

Osodeke said the union is therefore concerned about recent remarks by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, and NITDA DG that the payment platform performed below expectation.

It claimed that NITDA had initially given a report that UTAS did well in both tests it was subjected to.

“The Union is worried that while this exercise is going on, the Minister and the DG, NITDA went to press after FEC meeting of Wednesday, 9th March 2022, to mislead the nation that UTAS has failed the integrity test.

“We wish to draw your attention to the fact that NITDA gave the report that UTAS did well in both the integrity test and user acceptability verification. Clearly, 85% and 77% are high-class grades in any known evaluation system,” he said.

Osodeke said that the FG was so desperate to justify their false claims, that they brought up issues outside of ASUU’s responsibilities.

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“In their desperation to justify their false assertions, they threw up issues such as Data centre and hosting of TAS
software which is clearly outside the rubrics of ASUU’s responsibilities in the deployment of UTAS.

“It is pertinent to note that one of the core mandates of NITDA is to encourage local content development. Therefore, NITDA has to discharge its responsibility to ensure that this solution developed by Nigerian academics is deployed,” he added.

Osodeke said that to ensure transparency, NITDA should make the set of criteria or benchmark for certification of information technology application in Nigeria available to the public.

“The DG, NITDA should stop making comments that are capable of jeopardizing the joint on-going testing of UTAS between the NITDA Technical Team and its counterpart in our Union,” he said.

He challenged the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, and the NITDA DG, Kashifu Inuwa, to a public discussion on any national media concerning any of the issues on ground.

“However, if this behaviour continues, we will have no choice but to demand that the NITDA Technical Report on UTAS and our Union’s response be made Public in order to shed more light on the ongoing controversies without further waste of time.

“The DG, NITDA, and the Minister superintending the agency are challenged to public discussion on any national media to put all matters to rest for the benefit of our students, union members, and the Nigerian public in general,” he said.

THE WHISTLER reported on Thursday that the NITDA DG had declared that UTAS did not pass the integrity test it was subjected to while speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

While answering questions on the government’s thoughts on UTAS, Pantami had said that when he received a letter from the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, requesting a review of the submission and the technical ability of the system, he forwarded the request to NITDA.

“They (NITDA) conducted their analyses, their own testing and sent same back to me, and I drafted a cover letter, which I forwarded to the Minister of Labour and Employment and I copied the two Ministers of Education and the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, and also the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and even the National Universities Commission,” he explained.

The NITDA DG had said, “So we did all these three tests with them. And the system couldn’t pass. We wrote the reports and submitted them back to the Honorable Minister, which he forwarded to all relevant institutions, including ASUU.

“As we speak now, ASUU is working, trying to fix all the issues we highlighted with the system and we will review it again, but that is just one half of the story,” he declared.

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