TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says only federal workers enrolled on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform will be paid salaries.

Buhari disclosed this in his address while presenting the 2021 budget estimates to the national assembly on Thursday.

Buhari said enrollment on the IPPIS platform will help checkmate payment of non-existent workers.

“Personnel cost is still our largest single item of expenditure. In the seven months to 31 July, 2020, it accounted for 34 percent of total federal government spending and is projected at 33 percent of 2021 expenditure,” the president said.

“To check the incidence of payments to non-existent personnel and unauthorised allowances, only federal staff that have been captured on the Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPIS) platform will receive salaries.

“All agencies have been directed to ensure that they obtain all necessary approvals before embarking on any fresh recruitment. Any breach of these directives will be severely sanctioned.”

The federal government had, in October 2019, directed workers in its ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) to enroll on IPPIS or forfeit their salaries.

However, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had kicked against the payment platform, citing “irregularities”.

In March, the federal government had ordered the stoppage of salaries of lecturers and all workers in tertiary institutions who were not enrolled on the IPPIS.

Some lecturers had threatened to embark on strike if they did not receive their salaries, but they were later paid, while ASUU came to a truce with the government on merging its payroll software with the IPPIS.

However, ASUU embarked on a strike in March 2020, insisting that the protest will continue until the demands of the union — including the reversal of the adoption of the IPPIS platform and funding of universities — are met.

According to ASUU, the centralisation of a payment system violates university autonomy.

Meanwhile, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) commenced a 14-day warning strike on October 5, 2020, over irregularities in payment of salaries, arrears and earned allowances on the IPPIS platform.