1,000 ghost workers exposed in Niger

Over 1000 ghost workers have been exposed in Niger state following the verification conducted by a committee set up by the Niger State Government.

Some of the civil servants in the state were also discovered to be collecting double salaries while further investigations showed whose names appear in the payment vouchers but are not in the nominal roll of the state government.

The Chairman of the Chairman of the Committee on Civil Servants Salary Management and Verification, Engineer Ibrahim Mohammed Panti divulged this to newsmen after the submission of the Committee’s report to the state government.

According to him, a lot of discrepancies and malpractices have been discovered in the payment of salaries while the committee is saving the government more than N100 million with the recent findings.

“The discrepancies discovered in the course of the committee’s work include duplication of Bank verification number (BVN), multiple bank accounts number of some staff, duplication of civil servant control and identification numbers as well as some staff names appearing in payment vouchers but could not be found in the nominal roll with office of the Head of Service.

“The state’s staff strength of over 27,000 people have so far been reduced to about 26,000 while some few ghost workers have also been discovered by the committee.”

Panti stated that only 42 out of the 95 Ministries, Departments and Agencies submitted their staff list adding that the committee has decided on the discipline to give to the MDAs as a consequence of their refusal to submit their staff list.

“The committee will not pay October salary to any of the MDAs that refuse to submit theirs on or before 2nd October.”

He emphasized that the exercise was to close the leakages in salary payment to civil servants and not to witch-hunt anyone, adding that anyone who feels aggrieved or affected by the exercise negatively is free to approach the committee.

The Committee Chairman further said that after the exercise is done, the State Government might be in a position to implement the N30,000 new minimum wage.