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, has described as unjustified, the staff protest over the N1.2 billion
special overtime, reports ITRealms.
A press statement made available to ITRealms by the Director of
Information at the ministry, Mr. Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta, said the 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.
Dambatta, said the management wishes to state 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.
According to him, 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, and 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.
According to Dambatta, 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,” Dambatta said.
No comments:
Post a Comment