The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the federal government to exempt federal universities from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy. Dr. Nasir Isa, the president of ASUU, made the call at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja.
Isa said the TSA has made it difficult for the universities to fulfill their functions properly, especially in research fields.
“The practice will cause shortfalls in personnel costs and ASUU will be compelled to take appropriate steps against it if this is not checked on time,” he said.
“The TSA is incompatible with the autonomy of universities and our union calls on the federal government to exempt it from implementation on account of the peculiarities of the institutions.”
According to him, federal universities experienced shortfalls in their wage funds in December 2015 and January 2016, which was the caused by the TSA.
“The TSA adopted by the Federal Government, ostensibly to ensure transparency and avoid misapplication of public funds has constituted a clog in the wheel of progress of federal universities in Nigeria.
“With the operation of the TSA, federal universities find it difficult to discharge their core responsibilities of teaching, research and community services,’’ Isa said.
He also said it was hindering international academic networking due to inadequate access to budgeted funds.
Isa went on to condemn the federal government for removing 12 vice-chancellors of various federal universities without warning and replacing them with government candidates.
The academics were dismissed from their post on February 12, a moved with ISA described as having major implications regarding due process, university autonomy, and the growth and development of universities.
“The latest action in these universities has justified our consistent demand for proper governance structure and process in the Nigerian university system,” Isa said. “In the first place, the vice-chancellors were arbitrarily appointed into these institutions and the governing councils instituted without making their enabling law public.
“In a university where there is the law, only the governing council is empowered to remove a vice-chancellor from office for a good cause,” he said. “We, therefore, call on the federal government to tow the path of legality and due process by gazetting the law appointing the councils.”
Source: NAN, Premium Times, Naij, Edufrisk
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