Confusion in UNICAL over non payment of staff salary by IPPIS

Confusion in University of Calabar over non payment of 3000 staff salary by IPPIS.

No fewer than 3000 staff of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, were not paid their March salaries through the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System, IPPIS,  which in February took  over the management of staff  payroll  in tertiary institutions in the country.

In a memo addressed to the “University Community,”  and made available to Vanguard, Mrs Beatrice Igwe, the university’s Bursar identified several lapses by the IPPIS office  in Abuja, which she said led to the non-payment of those or non implementation  of certain basic alliances to those who were paid.

“IPPIS had taken over the payment of salaries since February this year and any error  or issue experienced emanated from them and not management of the university as alleged in some quarters.”

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She highlighted some of those errors to include sending of many staff salaries to a microfinance house, which does not host the accounts of those staff, non deduction of third party liabilities such as loans, contributions, and failure to implement increments due to staff.

“As at April 9, 2020, I received a list from IPPIS purported to be staff with invalid accounts. The implication is that, all those staff listed could not receive their salaries according to IPPIS due to invalid account numbers. It was quite surprising because on no occasion did Bursary adjust any bank account details of these staff or  staff who were all paid February salaries by IPPIS using the same data already in their database from the enrolment exercise.”

She lamented that the IPPIS also lumped the salaries of  doctors and nurses  in the Medical School and Medical Centres together  on Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure, CONTISS, instead of Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS,  for medical doctors and Consolidated Health Salary Structure, CONHES,  for nurses and other health workers.

“The annual incremental steps for staff was not implemented by IPPIS neither did they pay non- regular allowances to deserving staff, allowances such as shift, call duty, medical hazard were completely left out.”

She advised staff who are yet to receive their salaries to be patient with the IPPIS office while the university makes contact with the office for the anomalies to be corrected.

Reacting to the situation,  Dr John Edor,  Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities,  ASUU, in the university said, it was due to those obvious failures that the union rejected the IPPIS scheme and refused its members from enrolling.

“You can imagine the callousness on the part of government, at a time they are asking us to stay at home because of COVID 19,  should they not out of compassion pay us our salaries pending when the situation is over for us to settle ourselves.”

He said ASUU members in the university have not been paid since February following their rejection of the IPPIS scheme.

“We have families to cater for and at such a time when  funds needed to be injected into the economy to avoid a relapse into recession, the Federal Government is withholding out salaries.”

A call to IPPIS office in Abuja was answered by one Ignatius Attah, who said efforts were being made to normalise things “in due course”

He called for patience and understanding from the affected staff.

Source: Vanguard