The Enugu
State Government says it has discovered and weeded out 6,280 ghost workers and
pensioners from the nominal rolls of local governments councils and its
Pensions Board.
Part of the
discovery was the findings of a committee that recently disbursed the first
tranche of the Paris Club Refund, which was used to offset the outstanding
salaries and some pensions of Local Government workers and retirees
respectively, totaling 3,462 ghost pensioners.
A Committee
headed by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Edward Ubosi, had
discovered 2,818 ghost workers in the nominal roll of Local Government staff.
Briefing
journalists after the meeting of the State Executive Council, the Commissioner
for Information, Ogbuagu Anikwe,
disclosed that the Council “authorized the Commissioner for Local Government
Matters, Mr. Chijioke Edeoga, to hand over the verified names as the master
list of workers and pensioners to concerned Local Councils, LG commission and
Pension Board”.
Mr. Anikwe
said the state’s Accountant General, Paschal Okolie, briefed the Council and
announced that “the Enugu State government has grown its internally generated
revenue (IGR) to 35% of her total revenue”.
The
Information Commissioner added that “Okolie who was addressing top government
functionaries at a mid-year budget review at the weekend said that the half
year revenue receipts of N12.4billion almost equaled federal statutory
allocation of N13.5billion within the period.
“He
described this as a remarkable achievement on the part of revenue collection
agencies in the state for the period, considering that the total IGR receipts
for 2016 was N14.2billion”.
According to
the Commissioner, “the impact of this performance is already being felt by
Enugu State public sector workers who are promptly paid their salaries on the
25th day of each month, as well as pensioners and non-permanent workers who are
being promptly paid, the accountant-general said”.
Mr. Anikwe,
further stated that the Accountant General also announced that “the State
Governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has further directed that all civil servants
in the state be paid promptly on the 23rd day of each month, and that this
directive has been complied with”, saying “apart from this, capital projects
are being executed across the state in massive proportion as if we are in oil
boom”.
Mr. Okolie,
according to the Information Commissioner,
explained that the renewed commitment to transparency and creativity is
being promoted by Governor Ugwuanyi’s “prudent, transparent and accountable”
leadership and “we are working on every aspect of internally generated revenue
leakages in order to close the gap the shortfall in statutory allocation may
create”.
The
Commissioner equally told journalists that “during the State Executive Council
Meeting at the weekend, Gov. Ugwuanyi commended the Chairman of Enugu State
Internal Revenue Service, Chief Emeka Odo, for his creativity, hard work and
commitment which has led to recovery of massive stolen funds by unscrupulous
public officers colluding with corrupt commercial bank officials to defraud the
state to the tune of billions of Naira”.
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