By Sunny Anderson Osiebe...
In
a bid to avert the proposed nationwide strike action by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Chairman Senate Committee on
Tertiary Institutions
and TETFUND, Senator Jibrin Barau, today said the adhoc sub-committee
set up by Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and the
ASUU/Federal Government delegations may reconvene on Thursday to thrash
out the only outstanding issue yet to be agreed upon
by the university lecturers and Government representatives.
Barau
who is the head of the Senate Intervention Subcommittee mediating
between ASUU and the Federal Government, noted that Senate has made
tremendous progress
in its intervention to prevent the proposed strike having reached
agreement on five out of the six key issues raised by ASUU.
Speaking
to reporters at the National Assembly on the outcome of the
subcommittee's meeting with the ASUU and Federal Government's delegation
on Monday, Barau
said: "We had about six issues and all of them were very well
discussed. We deliberated and agreed on all of them except one, and that
one has to do with the earned allowances.
"Now,
they (ASUU) are asking for about N62billion. Initially, N30billion was
given to the universities in 2013 and the agreement as signed between
the Federal
Government and the ASUU clearly specifies that upon the receipt of any
payment, before any new payment is made, the last payment has to be
accounted for.
"The
Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) clearly wrote in one of its
letters to the Ministry of Education that it is not satisfied with the
level of accountability
on the N30billion.
"So,
a letter was sent to the Ministry of Finance since March that the
forensic audit to account for that money has not been done. They said no
other further
disbursement can be made except the money that was given is accounted
for as clearly spelt out in the agreement.
"We
then said, wait, the fact that the forensic audit was not carried out
was not the fault of ASUU. So we then agreed that for the exercise to be
conducted,
it was estimated by experts that it would take six months to conclude
the exercise.
"Then
we said look, it will be unfair to ask ASUU to wait without being paid
while the exercise is being carried out. We said ASUU should be paid
N1billion every
month while the forensic audit exercise is being carried out.
"ASUU
said they will not take N1billion. We now asked ASUU to accept
N1.5billion while the exercise is being concluded. ASUU said they will
go back and consult
with their members and that they are going to get back to us.
"Therefore,
we are waiting for ASUU to get back to us but definitely the meeting
may take place on Thursday so that we can thrash out the only one
remaining issue,
since we don't have the luxury of time on our side. The Senate wants
all contending issues to be resolved within the shortest time possible
so as to keep the academic calendar running smoothly in all our
universities," he said.
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