The Federal Government has said it has not agreed that the University Transparency and Accountability System will replace the Integrated Personal and Payroll Information System as proposed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities for the higher education system in the country.
The Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige, said this on Thursday at the resumed negotiation of the Federal Government with ASUU in Abuja on Thursday.
Ngige said the government has commenced the process of testing UTAS, adding that all the three stages of the test will be concluded within the time frame the union gave the government.
He said: “We have had the preliminary report and test run on the UTAS, which is the University Transparency Accountability Solution.
“We believe that with that, we will be able to get it right.
“Let me make it clear to members of the press: we never said UTAS will replace IPPIS as some of you are reporting.
“No!
“The UTAS developed by them is for the university systems and they feel that it captures the peculiarities that are configured to accommodate all the peculiarities of the university systems, especially as it affects the Professors and other teaching staff, and even the non-academic staff.
“That is the situation.
“We, as government feel we are going to put it up for tests: three stages of test.
“We have done the first stage of test, which is within the timeline of six months that ASUU promised.
“We are going to do other integrity test, Alpha test, Beta test and the one they call roll-over and other whatever test.
“It is the technologists that know all those tests.
“But this is the round we are going on now.”
