IPPIS targetted at violating university autonomy – ASUU

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities has said that the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Informa­tion was aimed at violating the univers­ity autonomy.

Chairman of ASUU, University of Port Harcourt chapter, Dr, Austen Sado, who said this on Sunday whi­le speaking with our correspondent, explained that the intr­oduction of IPPIS to tertiary instituti­ons was a means of controlling the unive­rsities politically.

Sado pointed out for the university system in the coun­try must be insulated from the civil ser­vice control and ma­nipulation for it to develop.

He stated that IPPIS was designed for the Civil Service and added that the plat­form (IPPIS) was not robust enough to handle the peculiarities of the university system.

Sado said, “A lot of things are going wrong and nobody is able to give account. But the solu­tion clearly is that they (Federal Government) must abrogate the use of IPPIS because IPPIS is inimical to development; it is inimical to academic freedom.

“If they want to put education on a pedestal of development, then the universiti­es must be insulated from the civil service control and man­ipulation. That is where we are now; they are simp­ly looking for how to have a political control over the univ­ersity so that they can also extend wha­tever they do politically to the universities.

“But that is inimical to development. IPPIS has clearly shown that the platform is not robust enough to handle the peculiarities of the universities. This is because IPPIS was designed for the Civil Service, and we (ASUU) are not of the same terms with civil servants.

“When they (government) did a presentation to convince us on why we should do it (IPPIS), we pointed out that those peculiarities were not there. What they did was to say they would do it. But it is clear that they cannot, and they’ve not been able to do it. Even those who enrolled are blaming themselves; there are multip­le issues in universities.”

The ASUU, UNIPORT chapter chairman added that some universities were already los­ing their authority to employ lecturers because what he described as manipulation through IPPIS.

“I hear that across the universities, IPPIS is already manip­ulating the employme­nt procedure. Some universities are already saying that employment is going on and they don’t have to refer to the departments.

“They (government) would just organise an interview and the departments are un­able to vet the qua­lification of the people coming. This is a violation of the autonomy of the uni­versity.

“Employment in the universities starts from the departments. Even if somebody is to be employed in just one department of the faculty, usually, the Dean of the faculty is the chairman of the board of int­erviewers,” Sado added.