The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU has kept its issues aside and is seeking an end to the 59 days old ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
In a statement, COEASU National President, Smart Olugbeko is commending ASUU for living up to its pedigree as a Union of intellectuals and eggheads to have created the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS as an alternative to what it calls the controversial intergrated personnel payroll and information System, IPPIS.
COEASU Argues that, UTAS, being a home-grown and hack-proof payment system, addresses lecturers concerns on payroll security and the peculiarities of the tertiary education system in general.
It notes further that after due considerations, COEASU, does not only welcome UTAS, but also posits that UTAS should indeed be adopted for the entire tertiary education sub-sector as it takes care of the peculiarities of the institutions, which include financial autonomy, sabbatical service, and the administration of discipline.
COEASU adds that the teachers are thrown aback by the latest game of sheer ego resorted to by the Federal Government through what it describes as the lazy and mischievous blackmail of UTAS because of unsubstantiated claims of inadequacy.
It stresses that the National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA’s assessment of UTAS done between March 8 and 16, 2022, gave UTAS 97.4% and 99.3% before and after remediation respectively, noting it is enough for Government to give kudos to ASUU for providing a home-grown solution to the problem of IPPIS.
COEASU adds that It is against this backdrop that it calls on the Federal Government to drop its ego, accept UTAS as a payment solution in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria whose functions and structure are different from the mainstream ministries.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
