The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has slammed the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) after it claimed that their planned payroll software (UTAS), failed integrity test. ayokinews.com reports
Following a two-day debate by the union’s National Executive Council (NEC), ASUU began a month-long warning strike on February 14. (NEC).
ASUU accused the government of breaking agreement to stop its last strike in 2020.
The warning strike, according to ASUU, was prompted by the federal government’s stance on renegotiation of wages and allowances, as well as the deployment of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) payroll software.
The union had rejected the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which was supported by the federal government, alleging it was “inconsistent.”
In an ongoing procedure that began on March 3, the government recommended UTAS to NITDA for User Acceptability Testing (UAT) and Vulnerability Assessment And Penetration Testing (VAPT), prior to final implementation.
However, Kashifu Inuwa, the Director-General of NITDA, announced on March 10 that UTAS had failed his agency’s three integrity tests: user acceptability, vulnerability, and stress.
Following NITDA’s announcement, ASUU scheduled an emergency meeting on Sunday to decide whether or not to organize a full-fledged strike in public colleges.
In a statement made following the meeting, ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke accused NITDA of deceiving the public.
He advised the DG not to say anything that may jeopardize the ongoing UTAS joint testing.
However, the union vowed to demand that the first NITDA technical report on the system, in which it scored 85 percent in the UAT, be made public, if NITDA continues to assert that UTAS failed.
ASUU claimed that UTAS received 85 and 77 percent, respectively, claiming that these are “high-class grades in any known evaluation.”
“The NITDA Technical Team, after conducting a comprehensive functionality test came out to say that out of 687 test cases, 529 cases were satisfactory, 156 cases queried, and 2 cases were cautioned,” Osodeke’s statement read.
“Taking this report on its face value, the percentage score is 77%. The question that arises from this is, can 77% in any known fair evaluation system be categorised as a failure?”
“In their desperation to justify their false assertions, threw up issues such as data centre and hosting of UTAS software which are clearly outside the rubrics of ASUU’s responsibilities in the deployment of UTAS.”
Check Also: https://guardian.ng/opinion/asuu-and-nigerian-education/
