FG agrees to pay ASUU N30bn ‘earned’ allowances

The federal government has agreed to release N30 billion as a part payment of the earned academic allowances (EAA) to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, said this at the end of a meeting between both parties on Friday in Abuja.

The academic union had embarked on strike since March over unpaid allowances and the government’s insistence on members of the union to enroll on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The minister said ASUU agreed to take the offer to its members for consideration and revert by October 21.

“In spite of the economic downturn as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, government have offer N20 billion payable by the end of January 2021,” Ngige said.

“The Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) was committed to release N30 billion on or before Nov. 6.

“The remaining N10 billion would be spread equally over the two tranches to be paid in May 2021 and February 2022 respectively. The OAGF should quickly conclude the verification of figures of EAA claims so as to clean up the figures from 2014 to 2020.

“To this end, a committee would be constituted by NUC to develop a template that would capture all the agreed allowances in the 2009 Agreement for all the Unions in the Universities.

“Thereafter, the OAGF and the National University Commission (NUC) are to quickly conclude the verification of the EAA figures, so as to defray the payment from 2014 to 2020. ASUU is to work with the OAGF and NUC to achieve that by the end of December.”

The minister said the process of mainstreaming the EAA into the annual budget using the agreed formula will be activated.

He  said the National Universities Commission (NUC) and ministry of education are to coordinate the activation process immediately and which will be concluded by November 6.

Ngige also said the national assembly has agreed to implement the process of mainstreaming provided the amount involved is sent to parliament as quickly as possible by the ministry of education.

Both parties, however, failed to agree on how the payment will be made to ASUU members during the transitional period of University Transparency Account System (UTAS) tests.

The government again appealed to ASUU to enroll on IPPIS in view of the presidential directive that all federal government employees should be paid via IPPIS.

It added that they can thereafter be migrated to UTAS whenever certified digitally efficient and effective with accompanying security coverage.

ASUU maintained that given its invention of UTAS, it should be exempted from IPPIS in the transition period.