Financial crisis: Govs declare war on ghost workers, pensioners

Financial crisis: Govs declare war on ghost workers, pensioners 29 Aug 2015 1:33 AM  As the country’s financial crisis deepens as a result of the oil slump, governors have taken the need to block all revenue leakages more seriously now than ever and have declared war on ghost workers and pensioners in their states. Worried about the difficulty in paying workers’ salaries, the governors have resolved to weed out ghost workers and dead pensioners who are believed to be costing their states several millions of Naira. The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, confirmed that the issue of ghost workers is posing a serious challenge his administration. He said the state government was planning a biometric verification of the state workforce. According to him, the verification will involve a thorough assessment and authentication of academic certificates of the workers to enable him to eliminate cases of ghost workers in the system. Ahmed’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, who spoke to one of our correspondents on Thursday in Ilorin, said the planned verification was a follow-up to that of the local government workers conducted in 2012. “The state government is currently reviewing the plans, including the cost of the proposed exercise,” Akorede said. Findings revealed that the Enugu State government has also moved to fish out ghost workers and pensioners on its payroll. The development followed the drastic decline in the state’s allocations from the federation account. The state governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, recently inaugurated an 11-man audit committee to verify the number of staff and pensioners in the state. The committee was mandated to ascertain the staff strength of local government councils in the state and investigate why some of the councils could not pay their workers’ salaries. The committee, which was given two months to submit its report, is headed by the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Edward Ubosi. Apart from intensifying effort to fish out ghost workers from the state’s payroll, the Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, has set up a committee charged with the responsibility of merging ministries and agencies. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ibraheem Dooba, told one of our correspondents that the committee would look into rationalisation and merging of ministries and agencies. Dooba said, “The committee’s mandates include identifying leakages through which public fund is being siphoned. The committee is expected to submit its report in September.” Also, the Permanent Secretary, the state Pension Board, Alhaji Alhmed Yahaya, urged pensioners in the state to submit themselves for biometric verification to enable the board to know how many retirees are still alive or dead. “The verification will help to check ghost pensioners in the state,” Yahaya said. While describing the workforce in the state as over bloated, the Bauchi State Head of Service, Mr. Abdon Gin, said the state government did not know the exact number of ghost workers on its payroll. Like its counterparts, the Bauchi State Government had also set up a committee to authenticate the exact number of workers on its payroll. Gin said, “The state government is working hard to sanitise the workforce through the ongoing verification. There is over-bloated workforce of over 35, 000 civil servants and wage bill of over N2.3bn in the state. “As soon as we finish the verification, the number of civil servants and their salaries will drop.” The state governor, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, said the verification was being carried out at no cost. The Nigeria Labour Congress in Osun State pushed for the verification of the state workforce following a claim by the state government that it pays the 35,000 workers on its payroll N3.6bn every month. NLC Chairman in the state, Mr. Jacob Adekomi, had during a summit organised by members of the state House of Assembly, faulted the government’s claim. One of our correspondents learnt that the ongoing staff audit in the state led to some startling discoveries as many fictitious names were allegedly found on the payroll of some government agencies. The Head of Service in the state, Mr. Sunday Owoeye, also confirmed that government had started screening workers and pensioners to ascertain their number. The Kogi State Government, which said it had eliminated ghost workers in its workforce in 2013, had also embarked on the verification of pensioners in the state. The Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Zainab Okino, who disclosed this to one of our correspondents, said, “The issue of ghost workers does not arise now because cases of ghost workers were eliminated in Kogi State in 2013 but another verification of pensioners is ongoing.” The recent verification of civil servants in Ekiti State indicated that no fewer than 809 ghost workers were detected. The state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, while featuring on the monthly radio and television programme, tagged “Meet Your Governor” said a total of 49,066 had so far been screened out of which 48,257 were verified. The state had also set up a committee to review the outcome of the recent verification of workers on the state government’s payroll to detect those being overpaid among others. The committee, headed by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Olusola Kolapo, is also to compile the list of dead workers still on the payroll, those not due for study leave but were granted and still being paid, and those who absconded from their duty posts, among others. The Abia State Head of Service, Dr. Vivian Umah, said that the state government had saved about N150m through the introduction of biometric verification of workers. Umah said Governor Okezie Ikpeazu introduced compulsory biometric verification of all workers as a measure to checkmate ghost workers’ syndrome. He said that the governor had set up a team headed by his Economic Adviser, Mr. Obinna Oriaku, to oversee the exercise, adding that since the measure was introduced, the menace had drastically reduced in the state. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Godwin Adindu, said there was no going back on the biometric staff audit. The ongoing verification of workers in Ondo State led to the discovery of many ghost workers. The state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, who could not give the exact number of the discovered ghost workers, said, “We have not collated all the data and the exercise is still ongoing. We are still going to do the verification in all government parastatals and agencies as well as the pension board after the core civil service. But I am sure we have discovered many of them.” Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: editor@punchng.com