Ministry of Finance Workers Embark on Protest, Demand Minister’s Removal..Strike Unjustified-Ministry
LAGOS JUNE 20TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Workers of the Ministry of Finance on Monday embarked on a protest. They are demanding the removal of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.
Their grouse, it was learnt, is over the non-payment of what they termed their allowances, which amounted to N1.2 billion.
They equally accused Adeosun of collecting her own allowances without any consideration for theirs.
One of such allowances, they alleged, was the N30 million for house rent annually. They equally said she was high handed
As at press time, policemen have been deployed to the Ministry to prevent the protest from getting out of hand.
The protesters were restricted to the space within the Ministry. They were not allowed to get onto the road.
Among the placards the workers had with them were those that read: “Kemi Adeosun must go”; “You are destroying Federal Ministry of Finance”; “Inflation is 15% courtesy of Adeosun”; “PMB agent of positive change, Adeosun agent of negative change”, “Adeosun score card is zero”, and “Adeosun collects N30m house rent.”
In a swift reaction, a statement titled, “ Staff Protest over N1.2bn Special Overtime Unjust’, emanating from Director of Information, Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta made available to Urhobotoday online, the Ministry explained that the payment of what the protesting staff called a Special Overtime (SOT), was stopped by the last administration in 2014 on the ground that it was not listed in any extant government Circular, Financial Regulations or the Public Service Rules.
It argued that the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Budget Office of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, do not individually or collectively, owe any of their personnel their salaries.
The statement maintained that the sum of N1.2 billion computed by the staff union for payment could not have been budgeted for in 2016 in the first place, not only because of the paucity of funds, but also the fact that the SOT allowance was not part of the remuneration in the Federal Public Service.
It pointed out that in view of the foregone, the Management of the Federal Ministry of Finance wishes to categorically state that the protests have no justifiable grounds.