Residents of
Kwara State on Tuesday decried the discovery of 8,863 ghost workers on the
payroll of the state and local government councils.
Some of the
residents who expressed shock at the fraud included the two factional chairmen
of the state Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo and Mr. Sunday
Fagbemi as well as the state Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Local Government
Employees, Mr. Abayomi Afolabi. They called for the prosecution of those
indicted in the scam.
The Secretary
to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, while submitting the report
of the Kwara State Personnel Database Development Committee to Governor
Abdulfatah Ahmed at the Government House, on Monday had said the committee
uncovered 8,863 suspected ghost workers on the payroll of both the state and
local governments.
Gold, who is
the alternate Chairman of the committee, stated that the 8, 863 personnel could
not be verified in the just-concluded staff biometric verification.
He noted that
the development could potentially save both the state and local governments N437,
500, 513.56 monthly.
Gold added
that as of the time of commencing the exercise, the total number of staff on
the payroll of both the state and local governments was 81, 446, but only 72,
583 of the workers and pensioners scaled through the verification process.
The SSG said
that of the 35, 656 workers on the state government payroll, only 31, 652 were
cleared and verified, leaving a total of 4,004 unverified personnel.
He added that
out of the 45, 790 workers and pensioners on the payroll of the 16 LGs in the
state, only 40, 931 were verified, which left 4, 859 unverified.
According to
him, the committee recommended that the verification should be continuous and
that the state government should implement a harmonised staff identification
system, certificate verification and clock-in system, which should be deployed
by the consultant at no cost to the government.
Ahmed in his
response endorsed all the recommendations of the committee and also directed
the state Ministry of Finance to adopt the committee’s report to prepare the
payroll of both the local and state governments’ worker’s salaries henceforth.
The governor
further directed that the ministry should warehouse the projected savings until
it was ascertained that all workers and pensioners had been verified.
He thanked the
consultant and members of the committee for the quality of work done and expressed
confidence that with the submission of the report, there would be an effective
payroll administration at both the local and state levels.
Afolabi said
the menace of ghost workers in the state was very sad, adding with the
discovery, a lot of money would be saved for the state and the LGs.
Fagbemi, who
decried the ghost worker syndrome in the state, added that the fraud had been
going on for a long time.
He said, “It
is fraud galore. They know who is responsible for all those things and we know
this money get back to the big ogas. It is a fraud that has been going on for
long.”
Oyedepo called
for the prosecution of the culprits, adding that it was sad that the alleged
fraud had lingered for some time.
“If that is
their claim, it is okay. They have been in government for the past 13 years and
the ghost workers had been there. They should also know how to bring them out.
With the large number of ghost workers, you can imagine how much money that had
been wasted to pay those who are not suppose to be in the system.
“Whoever put
them must be punished so that it will not happen again. If they have the
courage in fishing out the ghost workers, I salute them for their courage. But
one would feel better if they are able to punish those who put those ghost workers
there. They should be punished.”
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