ASUU Accuses NITDA of Lying on UTAS’ Integrity Test Failure

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has returned a damning indictment on National Information Development Agency (NITDA) for allegedly deceiving Nigerians that the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) developed by the union was not adopted by the Federal Government because the payroll software failed integrity test.

ASUU, which declared its members would continue to oppose enrolment on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), noted that none of the issues that necessitated the current impasse has been resolved.

Addressing newsmen, at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Adelaja Odukoya, coordinator, ASUU Lagos zone, said NITDA betrayed its mandate by misinforming the public that UTAS was fraught with systematic errors, hence, the decision of Federal Government to discard the payment platform.

Odukoya explained that NITDA had indicated in a report of the first test it conducted on UTAS and sent to Isa Pantami, minister of Communication and Digital Economy, on December 3, 2021, that the platform failed some fundamental test cases despite a summary score of 97.4 per cent. He wondered how scoring 97.4 per cent could have amounted to failure.

Odukoya, who added that refusal by NITDA to issue certificate of compliance led to a disagreement between it and ASUU, which led to a joint reassessment tests between the technical team of the union and NITDA, at the instance of Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment.

He added that the tests that were conducted between March 8 and 18, had in attendance representatives of the Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, and National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission.

“However, while the re-assessment tests were ongoing, NITDA director general released misleading information to the public from the discredited report of the first test of the first test that UTAS failed again, leaving out the result of the jointly conducted test of 99.3 per cent test.

“Our union them wonders how and where 99.3 per cent tests score would be adjudged as failure.

“We are aware that the position of the NITDA director general is not consistent with the enthusiasm of the technical team from the agency he superintends over and the director general is unduly politicising the entire process to the disadvantage of the country, possibly in the interest of Pantami.

“Their dispositions amount to passing a vote of no confidence in the Nigerian intelligentsia and our union would not allow this to fly. Good enough, we are convinced that the technical team members from NITDA are quite abreast of the process and the responsibilities around their certified qualifications.

“ASUU, therefore, wants the Nigerian public to call the NITDA director general to order on the point of integrity not to play politics and vendetta with the future of Nigeria and that of our public universities as national treasures and collective patrimony of all Nigerian citizens.

“We are convinced NITDA director general is only out to carry out the hatchet job of a minister whose professorial fraud was challenged by our union,” the ASUU zonal coordinator said.”