The Senate opened an investigation into claims of bribery and corruption made against employees of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System at various universities around the Federation on Wednesday.
The Punch reported that the Senate also decided to host a discussion with the Head of Service, the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Chairman of the committee on Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, and other pertinent stakeholders after it established a committee on tertiary institutions.
This was a follow-up to a motion made on Wednesday during the plenary by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (YPP, Anambra South).
IPPIS was introduced in 2007 to manage the federal government employees’ monthly payrolls in a way that would provide trust regarding staff compensation.
The Federal Government and ASUU disagreed over the preferred method of paying university staff from Nigeria.
ASUU rejected FG’s recommendation of IPPIS as the finest payroll system for the university system and suggested the University Transparency and Accountability Solution as a superior substitute.
Ubah stated during the motion that over two million federal employees from 696 ministries, departments, and agencies, including some employees of federal government-owned universities and other tertiary institutions, have reportedly been captured on the IPPIS platform since the system’s introduction.
“While the Federal Government and ASUU were unable to agree on which of the two payment platforms to be adopted for the management of university staff payroll, recent allegations of bribery, corruption, and delayed capturing and payment of some university staff recruited as far back as 2020 through the IPPIS have called for urgent investigation of those irregularities because of untold hardship,” the senator said.
“Many staff hired as far back as 2020 in various federal government colleges have not yet been recorded on the IPPIS network, and as a result, they have not received their pay since they were hired about three years ago.”
He also claimed that some of the impacted staff members worked at numerous universities and offered IPPIS authorities bribes in exchange for their appearance on the platform.
The credibility and suitability of IPPIS have been seriously questioned by the allegations of bribery, corruption, delayed capturing, and payment of salaries of newly hired staff of federal government-owned universities.
After discussion, the Senate decided to look into the claims of bribery and corruption against IPPIS officials at various universities across the federation.
The investigation, according to the statement, would also look into the status of the dispute between the federal government and ASUU over the use of either IPPIS or UTAS as the preferred payment platform for Nigerian university staff.
“It would also look into the delayed hiring and paying of staff at federal government-owned universities.”
The Red Chamber announced that when it is formed, its Committee on Tertiary Institutions will conduct the probe.
When the proposal was put up for discussion, it had the backing of Senators Adams Oshiomole (APC, Edo North), Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central), Garba Maidoki (PDP, Kebbi South), and Ibrahim Dankwambo (PDP, Gombe North).
