Senate probes IPPIS racketeering in universities

The Senate, on Wednesday, launched an investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption levelled against officials of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) at various universities across the Federation.  

This was sequel to a motion by Senator Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah (Anambra South) during Wednesday’s plenary.  

IPPIS was introduced to administer the monthly payroll of the federal government’s workers in a manner to guarantee confidence in staff emoluments.

Ubah noted that since the introduction of IPPIS, over two million federal government employees across 696 ministries, departments and agencies, including some staff of federal government-owned universities and other tertiary institutions have been reportedly captured on the IPPIS platform.  

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He recalled that the use of IPPIS for the storage of personnel records and management of staff payroll in Federal Government-owned universities was a thorny issue between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). 

He further noted that while the federal government insisted that IPPIS remains the best personnel records and payroll management system to be used for the storage of records and management of payroll of university staff, ASUU took a different position, recommending the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as an alternative that is most suitable for universities particularly.  

The Red Chamber said the investigation would be carried out by its Committee on Tertiary Institutions when constituted.  

The committee was also mandated to interact with the Head of Service, the National President of ASUU, the Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, and other relevant stakeholders in carrying out its mandate.