SANAA: Yemeni rebels in control of the capital ordered the Finance Ministry on Thursday to suspend all payments except salaries to state employees, in an apparent tightening of their control over government bodies.

Abdelmalek Al-Ejri, a member of the political bureau of the Shiite Houthi movement, or Ansarullah, told Reuters the measure was at the request of employees anxious that public funds be protected at a time of uncertainty.

Explaining the movement’s instruction to the ministry, Ejri said: “In these extraordinary circumstances, there is a real danger that elements from the former government would act in a way that would tamper with funds and to doctor books, that will cause the collapse of the state.”

He said the instruction had been delivered by what he called popular committees overseeing the operations of various ministries and seeking to ensure security in the city of two million following the Sept. 21 takeover.

Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa, who resigned on the same day as the takeover, was due to keep his government in place on a caretaker basis under the accord between the president and the Houthis.

But most ministries are functioning at a minimal level and many ministers and senior officials are not reporting to work.

A ministry employee, who declined to be identified, said a ministerial oversight committee set up by the Houthis delivered the instructions on financial transactions. “The committee ordered the officials to abide by their instructions until a new government is formed,” the employee said.

Ejri said the committees consisted of grassroots groups that had joined anti-government protests launched by Houthis in Sanaa in August in protest against fuel price rise.

Some Yemenis say the Houthis have shown restraint since they seized Sanaa: Apart from raiding homes of well-known figures they accuse of being behind wars launched by the government against their northern Saada strongholds in 2004-10, the Houthis have generally not interfered with ordinary people.