The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has warned the federal government against accepting the salary payment platform designed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) – the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
It said government must not allow itself to be blackmailed by any union to accept the lecturers’ platform, adding that NAAT had also worked assiduously to produce its own platform called, Tertiary Institutions Integrity Payroll System (TIIPS).
It would be recalled that the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), had recently notified the government about their own platform that would serve as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Payment Information System (IPPIS).
The new platform introduced by SSANU and NASU is the University General Peculiar Payroll Payment System (UGPPPS).
Addressing newsmen after its 44th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the weekend, President of NAAT, Ibeji Nwokoma, vowed that the association would also resist any attempt where the sharing of the recently approved N40bn Earned Allowance released by the federal government is skewed to favour a particular union to the detriment of its members.
He explained that its members were being owed the sum of N71 billion in arrears as part of the 2009 agreement with the federal government.