The
protest by the workers of the Ministry of Finance, which entered the second day
on Tuesday, prevented the meeting of the Federation Account Allocation
Committee, which had been earlier scheduled to hold.
The
workers, who shut all entrances to the headquarters of the ministry in Abuja
over unpaid N1.2bn special overtime allowances, stayed out of their offices
from 8am when they resumed work and vowed not to attend to any official
assignment until the arrival of the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.
As
a result of the workers’ action, the FAAC meeting could not be convened as top
officials of the ministry were denied access to their offices.
The
FAAC meeting, which usually holds at the main auditorium of the ministry for
the sharing of revenues accruing to the federation among the three tiers of
government, was last held on May 25.
The
committee had at its May 25 meeting adjourned to June 21 and 22.
But
unlike Monday’s protest when the workers allowed skeletal services to go on
while their action lasted, business activities were on Tuesday completely
paralysed as all the offices in the ministry were shut.
The
workers vowed that their agitation would continue until the finance minister was
either removed or their allowances paid.
They
carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Adeosun Kemi must stop treating us
like foreigners in our dear country, Nigeria’, ‘Adeosun must go’, ‘Pay our
entitlements’.
They
ignored pleas made by directors and other top officials of the ministry to open
the offices to allow government business to go on while they continued their
protest.
Even
the appearance of the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmoud Dutse, was
not enough to placate the protesting workers to open the offices as they asked
him to produce the minister.
After
waiting for few minutes without being able to gain access to his office, Dutse
had to leave to an unknown destination.
The
minister did not show up at the ministry throughout the period that the protest
lasted.
The
ministry had in a statement issued on Monday by the Director of Information,
Mr. Salisu Dambatta, said the protest by the workers was not justifiable.
He
said that the special overtime allowances being requested by the workers had
been stopped since 2014 as it was not listed in any government circular or
financial regulation.
The
statement read in part, “The payment of what the protesting staff called a
special overtime 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
sum of N1.2bn 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 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.
“The
management of the Federal Ministry of Finance wishes to categorically state
that the protests have no justifiable grounds.”
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