Kemi Adeosun says no going back on suspended Special Overtime Allowance for Ministry for Finance workers

Last week, civil servants in the Ministry of Finance staged a

protest at the Ministry's secretariat where they called for the sack of

the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun over the non-payment of their

special overtime allowance. The workers barricaded the entrance to the

ministry and accused the Minister of stopping their allowance.

Speaking on Channels TV this morning, Adeosun said the suspension of

the Special Overtime Allowance for the workers had been stopped by her

predecessor, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

"For about 11

years or so, the Federal Inland Revenue Service who are self funded, get

4% of what they collect as cost of collection. They don't get their

salaries from the Federation account and every year they allocate a

bonus and part of that bonus was given to staff of the office of the

Accountant General, Ministry of Finance and Budget of the Federation. It

has always been contentious but its always been paid. In 2014, my

predecessor then told them this is the last time it would be paid. It

was N800 million at the time. It was communicated to the Union that the

allowance wasn't in their scheme of service. Its not an official payment

that can be justified and so it is not going to continue. So when I was

sworn in in 2015, the first issue that was brought to me was this and

this year, the claim was N1.2 billion. I consulted with the Head of

Service, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Consulted with the Presidency,

checked the legalities. There is no provision for it in the budget for

FIRS. There is no provision for it in our budget. It is a customary

payment rather than an entitlement. I began to engage with the

leaderships of the unions around this and explained to them that it

wouldn't be possible to continue. I think people are just disappointed

because they have always had it. I took time to explain to the staff

that what you are legally entitled to you would always get but what is

not a legal entitlement, a customary entitlement, can't be paid"she said

Kemi Adeosun says no going back on suspended Special Overtime Allowance for Ministry for Finance workers