Workers of the Ministry of Finance in Abuja on Monday embarked on a protest demanding the removal of the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.
The workers grouse, it was learnt, has to do with the non-payment of what they termed their allowances, which amounted to N1.2 billion.
The equally accused Adeosun of collecting her own allowances without any consideration for theirs, alleging that the minister collects N30 million for house rent annually.
Ministry sources however said the protest was unwarranted, just as the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmud Isa-Dutse, said the N1.2 billion being demanded by the workers was an illegal payment that the workers have been receiving at the beginning of the year before now.
The money is said not to be captured in the Ministry’s 2016 Budget, hence Adeosun’s position not to pay the staff the sum.
A source close to Adeosun in the Ministry said there was no basis for the workers’ protest as the Ministry was not owing the workers salary.
He said the only salary yet to be paid was that of June, which is not yet due for payment and described the demand for the N1.2 billion as “illegal” as it was not captured in the 2016 Budget.
Policemen were deployed to the Ministry to prevent the protest from getting out of hand while the protesters were restricted to the space within the Ministry as 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.”
Meanwhile, a statement signed by Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta, Director, Information in the ministry “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.”
The statement further said 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.
“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.
“In view of the foregone, the Management of the Federal Ministry of Finance wishes to categorically state that the protests have no justifiable grounds,” it said.
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