The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has said that acceptance of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, as proposed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, may not significantly resolve the ongoing crisis over the lecturers strike as government has identified another potential sticking point toward the resolution of the crisis.
The Minister said this in a chat with State House correspondents that even if the government accepts the payment mode for lecturers who have rejected being placed on Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), ASUU has no money to procure the necessary hardware for its implementation.
He noted that the Federal Government did not make any budgetary provision for the procurement of the UTAS hardware.
Ngige, however, said the government has already forwarded the UTAS software to the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), for integrity test, noting that government will not want to discourage any Nigerian from providing homegrown solutions to issues.
Meanwhile, the Minister while responding to a question whether the government had shifted grounds on its negotiations with ASUU, said no; adding that the UTAS, which ASUU brought is not yet ready.
