The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) yesterday said the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System (U3PS) failed integrity tests ordered by the federal government.
The agency’s director of information infrastructure, Mr. Mr. Usman Abdulahi, stated this in Abuja during the resumed meeting of the house of representatives with the head of service, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan and other government officials over the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Daily Trust quoted Abdulahi as saying that the federal government directed the agency to test UTAS in October 2020, and that the platform failed the two integrity tests conducted on it.
“ASUU was asked to go back and review, which it did. Yet, the platform did not meet NITDA’s requirements the second time,” he said
Premium Times also quoted the NiTDA official as saying that UTAS failed the integrity on three occasions, while IPPIS failed the only test it was subjected to.
“In the first test, the system (UTAS) failed. The system could not meet the requirement. It was communicated to ASUU, full report was submitted directly to ASUU. The second report was submitted through the office of the honourable minister. ASUU went back, did the review that NiTDA recommended.
“In the assessment, we did in March this year, we spent two weeks carrying out the assessment in the presence of observers. At the end of the exercise, UTAS failed the due diligence test. Of course, ASUU agreed to work on the solution and resubmit for assessment.
“Until when the chief of staff (Ibrahim Gambari) convened the tripartite committee when the third test was ordered. In the third round, we were asked to conduct the test on three payment systems – UTAS 2020, U3PS by SSANU and NASU, and IPPIS. The report is the outcome of the assessment we did. In this report, we have criteria. None of the solutions met NITDA criteria,” he said.
Abdulahi further disclosed that NITDA did not conduct any test on IPPIS when it was launched because at the time IPPIS was introduced, the agency had no mandate to conduct integrity tests on solution platforms.
In her response, Yemi-Esan said the ministry of communications and digital economy wrote her office following NITDA’s observations about IPPIS on the need to take a holistic look at the platform and that a committee was empanelled to carry out the assignment.
She also noted that IPPIS is not just a payment platform but also a human resource component which all government agencies had been directed to activate.
She said all those directly under her purview had since complied.
She noted that the only reason the system failed the integrity is because NITDA only tested the payment component without the human resources component.
In his remarks, the deputy speaker, Mr. Idris Wase, expressed his reservations at NITDA’s action, saying it ought to have advised government on the appropriate action to take in view of its discovery on IPPIS.
He said the IPPIS is a foreign platform while UTAS is a locally developed system, hence, the government should prioritise and appreciate local content.
“The universities that we have are supposed to be centres of excellence and intellectual development, if they can develop a system for us—that will save us money—at a low cost. Why are we fighting? Why are we quarrelling? They are saying they are doing this thing at free cost. If you find it worthy, why are you not using it? We need to have a rethink,” he said.
Thereafter, the lawmakers resolved that there was the need to have an expanded meeting with ASUU next Thursday.
“There is a need for ASUU to be here because it is becoming your words against theirs. That test result put UTAS ahead of the curve compared to the others. ASUU is saying that no one is giving them results. We will need to sit down again with ASUU present. It is good to have both sides vent,” the speaker, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila said.
Those expected at the meeting are the minister of labour and productivity, the secretary to the government of the federation, the head of civil service, the accountant general of the federation, the director general of the salaries, income and wages commission and the director general of the budget office.
