By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

ABUJA—The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, yesterday, bowed to pressures from staff to be paid accumulated allowances which stand at about N1.2 billion.

Calm returned to the ministry yesterday after two days’ protests by staff over unpaid allowances.

File: Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun

The staff forced the minister to walk from the gate of the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, when she resumed work at about 8.00 am, to the main building where she addressed them at the auditorium.

Members of staff who locked the gate of the ministry on Monday and Tuesday, had earlier insisted the minister must address them in the open but the minister declined and maintained that she would only speak to them at the auditorium.

Mr. Ade Olaniyi, Chairman of Joint Unions Council of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, told Vanguard that at the end of the meeting, the minister promised to approve the allowances and asked the Director of Finance and Accounts to submit the files to her office.

He said: “She has asked the Director of Finance and Accounts to submit all the files that relate to the allowances to her for approval.”

Reminded that the allowances were not captured in the 2016 budget, the union leader said that even without budgetary provisions, the minister could bend backwards to source the money from the Federal Inland Revenue Service excess funds..

He revealed that the FIRS was usually given 4 per cent of whatever revenue it generated after meeting its revenue target and that the service usually gives 1 per cent to the Federal Ministry of Finance

Olaniyi said: “There was never a time this money is budgeted for. Federal Ministry of Finance is the mother ministry to Inland revenue. We are the policymakers. We set targets.

‘’There is a target they set for FIRS. Immediately they meet it, whatever that is above, thjat is the excess. Out of the excess, they give them 4 per cent and out of the 4 per cent, they give one per cent to the mother ministry.

“It is Inland Revenue that has been giving this money for the past 22 years; it has never been budgeted, It is just like other ministries. If you go to Foreign Affairs now, there are certain amount they are paying to their own staff.”

He said the staff embarked on the protests because the minister ignored three letters from the union, asking for her attention.

‘’We wrote three letters to the minister; we wrote on February 24, March 16 and May 16, she didn’t respond. Those three letters satisfied the requirements for action going by labour law.

“We went to the Permanent Secretary who appealed to us for restraint. We still gave her two weeks to respond but she didn’t. At that point, we had no option than to embark on the action we took.

“Along the line staff were aggrieved and insisted that she must meet the congress and address those issues,’’ he said.