ASUU urges Federal Government to approve Transparency, Accountability Solution

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to approve and implement the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as an alternative payment system

The ASUU Kano State Zonal Coordinator, Comrade Abdulkadir Muhammad stated this during a press conference held at Bayero University, Kano.

He said the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) that the federal government intended to use for ASUU, is not suitable for their needs as it doesn’t capture the peculiarities of Nigerian Universities.

“It was agreed that ASUU will develop a more better alternative payment system that guarantees transparency in the management of personnel cost and information in our universities than IPPIS.

“The union took up the challenge and develop UTAS, a credible alternative payment software that addresses the peculiarities of Nigerian Universities and preserve their autonomy,” said Comrade Muhammad.

According to him, the integrity test that UTAS is undergoing has proved it as a resilient, robust, flexible, secure and cost effective software. But despite all, some government agencies have resorted to peddling propaganda in their bid to delay the deployment of same software.

“During the re-assessment meeting between the technical team of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and ASUU, NITDA scored UTAS (99.3%).

“But despite all, the NITDA boss went ahead and claim that UTAS has failed integrity test

“It is our hope, that the federal government will toe the line of honour to allow the ongoing integrity tests to be finalized for quick deployment of UTAS in the interest of Nigerian public university system.”

The Union therefore, called on stakeholders to join them in the struggle.