Organised Labour under the auspices of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria said yesterday that federal workers were being owed over N200 billion in the payment of promotion and salary arrears.
It accused the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Office of the Federation of sabotaging the payment process approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Rising from its National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, the Association said it had decided to work in collaboration with the Nigeria Labour Congress to shut down the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office of the Federation for diverting money meant for payment of promotion arrears, salary arrears and death benefits to paying contractors.
In a communique read by the FCT Secretary of the association, Mr. Ojemhenka Isaac, the association said it decided to picket the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office which the workers believe were subverting the express directives of the President to release funds to pay the arrears owed them.
He said that a virement approved by the National Assembly to pay the outstanding arrears was diverted to pay contractors for some unknown reasons.
President of the Association, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, who is also the President of the Trade Union Congress, told journalists after the meeting that the ASCSN, an affiliate Union of the TUC, was collaborating with the NLC to carry out the planned industrial actions.
According to him, the picketing of the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office was the first step which would be followed by a strike, adding that the dates for both actions would be worked out later.
Kaigama said the arrears owed the workers were not paid even when the President directed the Head of Service to work out the details with unions so that the payment would commence.
He explained further that when submissions on the issue were made to the government, it came up with the explanation that there was no budgetary provision to back payment of the arrears.
Kaigama added that workers became agitated after several years when the government told them that a virement approved for that purpose in 2016 by the National Assembly had lapsed and could only be used for capital projects.
He said: “The picketing would be done and I will lead it because this thing has taken so long. The idea of the payment of arrears of promotions, death benefits, first 28 days started as soon as the President was sworn in.
“We wrote Mr. President, he responded positively and then directed the office of the Head of Service to sit with us and work out details.
“The details were worked out through the MDAs and our representatives at the MDA level and submissions were made to the Office of the Head of Service.
“That was done, then the National Assembly approved a virement but a chunk of money was earmarked for the settlement of part of these arrears.
“But today, the explanation they are giving us is that the virement approved by the National Assembly has lapsed, that it is only capital projects it can accommodate, not overhead.
“In fact, except the National Assembly intervenes now as we are going, there is a tendency now that even this year’s budget may not capture these issues. And that is why we have decided that enough is enough. We are going to picket where we know the problems are.
“Mr President has directed. The delay we are having now is between Finance and Budget.