Federal Ministry of Finance addresses the salary protest at its Abuja Secretariat

Workers at the Federal Ministry of Finance today called for the sack of Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun. They staged a protest and shut down the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, over the non payment of their allowances and entitlements. However, In a statement released by Director of Information, Salisu Na’inna Dambatta, he said the protest has been addressed & deemed unjustified. It reads,


A joint protest by some staff of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Budget Office of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, to back a demand for the payment of an unofficial allowance totaling N1.2 billion has been brought to the attention of the Management of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The Management wishes to state as follows:
i. 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;
ii. 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; and
iii. 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.