FG Exploiting Lecturers Through IPPIS – COEASU

The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union(COEASU) has alleged that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) enforced by federal government was a tool set up to take away their lawful dues.

“IPPIS is an exploitative tool; the deduction of obnoxious tax, without recourse to the negotiated tax which our members had agreed upon with their respective state governments, is evident exploitation,” COEASU President, Nuhu Ogirima, said in communique.

“Same reason can be adduced for the persistent deduction of members’ salary for the National Housing Fund, to which they did not subscribe,” the statement claimed.

However, the federal government has maintained that the IPPIS platform was geared towards curbing corruption, adding that it aligned with global best practices.

But Ogirimi, in the statement, accused the Attorney General’s Office of flagrantly refusing to remit to the union the dues deducted since the utilisation of the pay platform.

“The non-remittance of our union dues, more than two months after its deduction by OAGF, also amounts to not only a breach of trust but a contravention of the law,” he added.

Ogirima also said that technical failure with the IPPIS platform should be looked into or it could delay payments thereby causing undue hardship to lecturers.

“For instance, the non-payment of April 2020 salary, as at May 11, has been attributed to system failure; this does not augur well for the government,” he said.

The statement further reads:

“Members of our union had been opposed to the enrolment of the academic staff of colleges of education on the obnoxious pay platform, IPPIS, until December, 2019, when it was imposed. Quite a substantial development has occurred since the utilisation of the platform to effect payment of salaries since February 2020.”