Ministry workers vow to ‘shame’ finance minister over comment on N1.2bn SOA

Ministry workers vow to ‘shame’ finance minister over comment on N1.2bn SOA

Workers in the Ministry of Finance have vowed to “shame”  the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, over N1.2 billion special overtime allowance (SOA) due to them.

The workers reacted angrily to the interview the minister granted a news media when she said, “There was no money to pay the workers.”

The minister while answering journalists why she had allowed the acrimonious relationship between her and the workers to take the front burner instead of concentrating on her statutory role, said, “That N1.2 billion is no small money. Where do they expect the Federal Government to get such amount of money?”

But some workers drawn from the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and Office of the Accountant General of Federation restated their position insisting there was no way special overtime allowance (SOA) would not be paid.

Although Adeosun said that the workers deserved to be paid the money, turned around to say there was no source of funding for the cause.

This has angered the workers who said, “They would act at the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum” issued to the minister last week.

Workers in the Ministry of Finance had been at daggers’drawn with the minister over SOA saying they have run out of patience with the minister.

The workers having protested for few days, issued the minister a seven-day ultimatum failure which further actions would be taken.

The ministry, however, issued statement denying the claim.

Speaking through Alhaji Salisu Na’Inna Dambata, the ministry said, “The protests have no justifiable grounds.

“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 ministry added 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 official statement from the ministry differed from Mrs. Adeosun’s who said the workers’ demand was lawful but only said where the money would be drawn from was the source of conflict.