Outrage As Kwara State Uncovers 8,863 'Ghost' On Payroll

                       


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 PDP, Chief Iyiola Oyedepo and 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 massive 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.

Ahlahji 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 said the discovery could save both the state and local governments N437,500,513.56 monthly.

Alhaji 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.

Governor Ahmed in his response endorsed all the recommendations of the committee and 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.