Federal executive council (FEC) has approved the removal of public tertiary institutions from the integrated payroll and personnel information system (IPPIS).

Mohammed Idris, minister of information, spoke to journalists on Wednesday at the end of the FEC meeting at the presidential villa.

Idris said the development means that members of staff of public universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education have been taken off IPPIS.

The minister said authorities of tertiary institutions will now be paying their personnel from their own end rather than relying on IPPIS.

“Today, the universities and other tertiary institutions have gotten a very big relief from the integrated payroll and personnel information system,” the minister said.

“You will recall that the university authorities and the others have been clamouring for the exemption of the universities and other tertiary institutions from this system.

“Today, the council has graciously approved that. What that means is that going forward, the universities and other tertiary institutions, the polytechnics, and colleges of education will be taken off the IPPIS.

“What that means in simple language is that the university authorities and other tertiary institutions will now be paying their own personnel from their own end instead of relying on the IPPIS.”

The federal government, in October 2006, introduced the IPPIS as one of its reform initiatives for the effective storage of personnel records, transparency, and accountability.

In 2020, there were 696 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAS) on the IPPIS platform.

However, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) kicked against the enrollment of public university lecturers on the software.

The academic union said it wanted University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS).

UTAS, the lecturers argued, accounts for the unique elements of university employment such as sabbatical leave, adjunct engagements, part-time engagements, and contractual obligations.

IPPIS has also been accused of being fraught with irregularities and discrepancies.

The Cable