The Federal Government will from November stop the salaries of university workers not captured on the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation said this in a memo addressed to all Vice Chancellors through the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigeria Federal Universities.
The letter dated October 8, 2020 and titled, “Stoppage of salaries of university staff that are yet to be enrolled on IPPIS platform,” was signed by the the Director of IPPIS, Dr. Nsikak Ben.
The IPPIS scheme is one of the Federal Government’s reform initiative which is designed to achieve a centralised payroll system of the Federal Government.
It facilitates easy storage and retrieval of personnel records for administrative and pensions processing to aid manpower planning and budgeting as well as to comply with global best practice.
President Muhammadu Buhari had last year directed the ministry of finance to ensure that all employees of the Federal Government are enrolled on the IPPIS platform.
The development had made the government to open a three weeks window for IPPIS enrollment between November 25 and December 7 across 43 universities.
The Accountant-General of the Federation Mr Ahmed Idris had said out of the 94,990 university workers enrolled as of March this year, about 8,146 of them were academic staff while the balance of 86, 844 were non-academic staff.
Branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities in federal universities across the country had resisted the move stating that it was against universities autonomy.
The union had threatened to mobilise its members for a nationwide strike if the Federal Government stopped the salaries of lecturers for resisting enrolment on the IPPIS platform.
But the Office of the Accountant-General said in the letter that any members of staff
who has not enrolled on the IPPIS, either as a result of Study Leave (with pay), Maternity Leave or on Medical ground, will no longer
appear on the IPPIS payroll with effect from November, 2020 payroll except such Staff presents himseif/herself for the biometric data capture.
The letter reads, “I am directed to inform you that any Staff of your Institution who has not
enrolled on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, either as
a result of Study Leave (with pay), Maternity Leave or on Medical ground, will no longer
appear on the IPPIS payroll with effect from November, 2020 payroll except such Staff presents himseif/herself for the biometric data capture at the office of the Accountant- General of the Federation, Abuja with an introduction letter/IPPIS Enrollment
forms duly endorsed by the principal authorities of the Institution.
“In addition, all supporting documents shouid include evidence of six months salary bank statement
“In view of the above, kindly inform your staff in this category to urgently avail themselves for the biometric data capture at the OAGF.
“However, exemption may only
be given where institutions provide evidence of Study Leave, stating the duration to justify such persons being retained on the payroll.”