By Simdi Gloria
Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment on Tuesday said, the integrity test being conducted on the University Transparency Accountability Solution software proposed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities will take about 6-8 months to be completed.
ASUU proposed UTAS as an alternative to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) of the Federal Government.
The minister also noted that while the software for the UTAS was available, there was no hardware to back it up.
He claimed if the UTAS passes the software test, that ASUU does not have the needed fund to procure its hardware.
The decision to send the UTAS for an integrity test is based on a decision by the Federal Government not to discourage anybody or group from developing solutions to issues.
He explained further, “The UTAS, that is the University Transparent System which they brought, is not yet ready.
“It is not fully ready, it is undergoing an integrity test for the software. I am not a computer scientist, but you must also know that you must test the hardware and the integrity test for the software.
“As we speak, ASUU has no hardware and UTAS does not have hardware backing.
“I am waiting for the NITDA’s full report but the preliminary report they gave me, the software integrity test will take them about six to eight weeks, and thereafter, we go to the hardware.
“But the big issue is, who will provide the hardware?
“ASUU does not have the finances to do so. Has the government budgeted for it now as we speak? So, that one is a major problem. But we don’t have to dissuade anybody, we don’t have to tell anybody not to carry on, we like local content development, we need our things to be homegrown. So, we are really encouraging them.”
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