Acting upon information that officials of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System at various institutions across Nigeria demand for bribe, the Senate has launched an investigation into the claim.
This decision was reached on Wednesday in reaction to a to a motion by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (Young Progressives Party, Anambra South) during plenary.
The Senate also fixed an interactive session 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 relevant stakeholders.
In 2007, the Nigerian government introduced IPPIS to handle the payroll of federal government workers.
There had been a disagreement between the Federal Government and ASUU on the preferred payment for Nigerian university staff.
While ASUU recommended the University Transparency and Accountability Solution as a payroll for the university system, the FG insisted on IPPIS, leading to several strike actions by the university body.
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Moving the motion on Wednesday, Ubah said, “While the Federal Government and ASUU were unable to reach an agreement regarding 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 in 2020 through the IPPIS has called for urgent investigation of those irregularities because of untold hardship caused to affected university staff and their families.”
“The allegations of bribery, corruption, delayed capturing and payment of salaries of newly-recruited staff of Federal Government-owned universities have cast serious doubt in the credibility and suitability of IPPIS as a platform for managing the payroll of university staff as institutions clothed with autonomy for the purposes of teaching, learning and research,” he said.
After the debate, the lawmakers agreed to investigate the allegations of bribery and corruption against IPPIS officials at various universities across the federation.
The Red Chamber said the investigation be carried out by its Committee on Tertiary Institutions when constituted.
Senators Adams Oshiomole (All Progressives Congress, Edo North), Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central), Garba Maidoki (PDP, Kebbi South) and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Peoples Democratic Party, Gombe North) supported the motion when it was thrown for debate.