THE Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to embrace the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in order to ensure accountability and transparency.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr Emmanuel Onwubiko, in Abuja on Wednesday, HURIWA said IPPIS would also wipe out the phenomenon of ghost workers in the country.
Onwubiko said universities as bastions of learning ought to be the first among government institutions that should embrace IPPIS.
According to him, the reason for opposition of this 21st century compliant payment system by ASUU does not add up.
“This is because the Federal Government is the employer of labour in all universities at the federal level since they draw their funding components from the federation account.
“Indeed there are several issues that must not be muddled up and dirtied in the muddy water of politics.
“One of such things is the federal government’s integrated payroll and personnel information system which governs the accountable and transparent payment of salaries of workers employed by the Nigerian state.
“For us in the organised human rights community, in as much as we are not comfortable with the lack of openness in the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, we think that all the 36 states of the federation should be made to adopt that seamless form of payments of salaries known as IPPIS,” he said.
Onwubiko said federal government’s employees should be made to comply with best global practice aimed at abolishing corruption and abuse of office.
“Since IPPIS department is responsible for payment of salaries and wages directly to government employee’s bank accounts with appropriate deductions and remittances of third party payments such as; Federal Inland Revenue Service and State Boards of Internal Revenue.
“Others are National Health Insurance Scheme, National Housing Fund, Pension Fund Administrator, Cooperative Societies, Trade Unions Dues, Association Dues and Bank Loans.
“We are finding it very much shocking that universities who should be at the forefront of campaign for an accountable and transparent payment system in the country are those kicking against this noble idea,” the national coordinator said.
According to him, if implemented faithfully, IPPIS is capable of checking ghosts workers syndrome which creates corruption on a large scale in the federal civil service.
Onwubiko urged ASUU to enroll in the IPPIS to help the country to wage forensic war against corruption.
Nigerians In Diaspora Supports 49 Surgeries In Five Years
Yemisi Izuora
Nigerians in the Diaspora has so far intervened in the execution of 49 surgeries within the last five years during the 7th open heart missions for children in the National Hospital Abuja.
The Chief Medical Director of National Hospital Abuja, Dr Jafaru Momoh disclosed this while receiving Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) who was on the spot assessment of the medical team in Abuja.
Momoh represented by Dr Aisha Umar, Director of Clinical Services explained that this is the second mission in 2019 with the first one carried out in May in which eight surgeries were done successfully.
“In this second phase of the mission, they planned to do 10 to 12 surgeries with a target of three per day ending on Saturday Nov. 30,” She said.
Umar said that due to the services rendered by the volunteers, the Hospital has subsidised the rate of the surgeries from N500,000 to N2.5 million per child, which was not enough to cover the bills for the surgery.
She said in the past five years, the medical team was able to train the local nurses, which had reduced the cost for them because they don’t have to travel with nurses again.
The Medical Director said the team is not being paid for their services nor given accommodation, all they do was to thank them and give necessary logistics support.
She therefore appealed to other medical personnel in the diaspora to make out time and conduct outreaches in any way possible.
Elated by the kind gesture of the Medical mission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the commission has been able to create the Diaspora Healthcare Initiative and thanked Dr Patrick Uwubanmwen (Chief Executive, Spem Quia Filii Foundation) who led the team of volunteers from United Kingdom.
The NIDCOM boss assured the team of Federal Government support, especially in the structure of the medical missions in Nigeria from the Diaspora and thanked the doctors for their selflessness, philanthropy, time and money towards the project.
Earlier, Dr Patrick Uwubanmwen said his Foundation and that of Healing Little Heart Foundation has successfully carried out 1,900 surgeries in 28 medical missions across the world.
He said he was inspired to start the foundation because he lost a brother to a heart disease, saying that heart diseases killed more than malaria globally.
Uwubanmwen listed other members of the team as Dr Zeena Makhija, Consultant Cardiothoracic and Congenital Heart Disease, Dr Raghu Ramaah, Consultant Intensive Care (ITU),Dr Nadia, Consultant Pediatric Cardiologist and Dr Singuha Consultant Pediatric Cardiac Anesthetist.
He said that the Healing Little Heart Foundation will be the first centre for children to receive open-heart surgery and hoping other geo- political zones will be able to replicate it, urging the government for more capacity to train the medical staff.
He said that they got four collaborations from different charities, thus requested for more funding from the government that will in turn assist the team and increase the success of more surgeries.
