The federal government has announced that it has paid lecturers N30 billion in Revitalisation Fund and N22.5 billion in Earned Academic Allowance, noting that it has achieved significant progress in implementing the Memorandum of Understanding established with university employees.
Senator Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, told THISDAY over the weekend that he had got confirmation from the Federal Ministry of Finance that monies had been granted to universities for the revitalization of infrastructure and payment of earned allowances.
"By yesterday (Friday), the Federal Ministry of Finance's Accountant General's Office and the Funds Office assured me that they had paid the Earned Allowances to the 38 federal universities, and that by today (Saturday), all of the impacted universities would have received their payments for workers."
He said, "I've conveyed the position to ASUU leadership."
Ngige also said that the contentious issue of the salary payment platform, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) was being addressed, revealing that the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has submitted its report to government.
He said: “Just today again, NITDA submitted its report on the assessment conducted on UTAS and it has been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance, Accountant General’s Office and IPPIS Office so that they will look at it and sort out other details. Copies of the report have also been forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Education and National Universities Commission (NUC)”.
On whether the report on UTAS was a positive one, the minister said it scored over 50 per cent of the points used in the evaluation, adding that it is work- in-progress.
“Out of the 500 test points that were used in rating it, we are talking about 50 per cent success rate. So, it’s work-in-progress. The Ministry of Finance and Accountant General’s Office are to study the report and areas that they are not satisfied they will let us know and we’ll get back to NITDA because we have a combined team with the NUC and IPPIS Office,” Ngige added.
Reacting to the congresses being planned by ASUU to mobilise its various branches, Ngige said that the leadership of the union would be expected to inform its organs of the latest progress made both in release of payment for Earned Allowances and Revitalisation Fund.
“They will tell them what happened. The important thing is that we have kept our promise that the N30 billion revitalisation fund has been paid and that N22.5 billion Earned Allowances have also been paid. So, we look forward to tackling other remaining areas like errors in computation of salaries of some of the staff and of course the question of renegotiation of agreements, which is being handled with the Federal Ministry of Education.
Published by: MasterGift
Hmm, ASUU strike again?
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