ASUU Blast FG on Financial Recklessness

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed shock at the shocking revelations made last Friday by the Minister for Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, that the payment platforms used by the Buhari-led administration for both the receipt and payment of its revenue were never examined or approved by the appropriate governmental bodies before being used.

Speaking in Abakaliki, the ASUU branch Chairperson of Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi State, Ogugua Egwu, stressed that it was only an irresponsible and profligate government that could engage in the such absurdity of financial recklessness.

These platforms include the Treasury Single Account, generally known as TSA, the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, GIFMIS, and the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

According to Pantami: “At the time they were deployed, the provision of NITDA Act 2006 under Section A of the Act setting the standardisation of ICT deployment in federal public institutions were not followed. Because of this, these three systems were not subjected to government certification and IT clearance as specified by the law.”

He lamented the significant financial losses the current administration has suffered since taking office in 2015 as a result of the obvious flaws in these payment platforms, contending that Nigeria should have had more than enough to meet all of her domestic needs and even lend to other countries if the numerous leakages in those platforms weren’t present.

Ogugua claimed that because the government allowed the seepage to continue, she was forced to borrow money from China and other countries to keep the economy afloat.

“And this is the same government that has been sending their self- assumed spokesmen like those in the Ministry of Labour and (Un)Employment to media houses both at home and abroad, to misinform people that the government is broke!” the ASUU Chairperson stressed.