ASUU Sternly Warns Pantami, NITDA Over UTAS

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned the National Information Technology Development Agency to stop misinforming Nigerians, after insisting  its proposed payment platform, Universities Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), did not fail any integrity test as claimed.

The union made this known on Sunday in a statement signed by its National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, where he noted that UTAS is still being subjected to integrity tests.

“The Federal Government had referred UTAS to NITDA to conduct User Acceptance Test (UAT) and Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Test (VAPT) prior to the final deployment.

“The process, which commenced on Thursday, 3rd March 2022, is still ongoing,” he said.

Osodeke released the statement in response to the statement made by the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that UTAS had failed the integrity tests already.

“This press statement is necessitated by the need for ASUU to put the records straight on the grounds already covered in our patriotic struggle to get the government to deploy UTAS as a suitable solution for salary payment in our university system.

“Of particular concern to us is the statement credited to both the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy and Director General, NITDA to the effect that UTAS has failed the integrity test,” he added.

Osodeke said the initial integrity test that were carried out on UTAS by NITDA on the 10th August 2021 at the National Universities Commission (NUC) where the platform was certified as a suitable solution for salary payment in universities, with a score of 85% in User Acceptance Test (UAT) according to a NITDA report.

He added that the union is therefore concerned about recent remarks by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, and NITDA DG that the payment platform performed below expectation

It claimed that NITDA had initially given a report that UTAS did well in both tests it was subjected.

“Taking this report on its face value, the percentage score is 77%. 1The question that arises from this is can 77% in any known fair evaluation system be categorized as a failure?

“Suffice it to say here that some observations and questions were raised by NITDA to which UTAS technical team has to provide clarification.

“As we speak, our engagement with NITDA over the second round of testing continues,” he said.