The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,, Abubakar Malami, has allegedly exhausted its personnel costs in the 2021 budget and is currently bankrupt and unable to pay salaries of its workers.
According to SaharaReporters, some workers in the federal ministry said life had become increasingly difficult for them as they were unable to meet their financial obligations.
The workers wondered how Malami and other senior officials of the ministry would claim to have exhausted their personnel budgets before the end of a fiscal year, adding that the morale of the staff was now low.
“The Ministry of Justice was unable to pay us last month’s salary because the ministry has exhausted its budget according to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation. The Accountant-General had written to call the ministry’s attention to it before, but out of Malami and others’ negligence, they didn’t take it serious, because they refused to act on it. Hence, they couldn’t pay our salaries.” a female worker told SaharaReporters.
Another worker in the ministry stated that if the situation was allowed to continue, their productivity would be affected.
He added that expectedly, many of them were down with rising debts.
“The personnel cost of the ministry is exhausted. The top officials have lavished the money and have run down the ministry with wasteful spending. We have not got last month’s salary,” he said.