PDP In Tears as Kogi Governor Makes World Record

The ongoing clean-up and fight against corruption by the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has paid off immensely, as the State Government announced Monday, July 25, that it has uncovered and fished out an unprecedented number of ghost workers, in the history of the State.

In a statement by the Auditor-General of the State, Okala Yusuf, he stated that a whooping sum of ‎N213 billion, has been lost to about 18, 211 ghost workers in the past 13 years of the Peoples Democratic Party-led, PDP, administrations.

Yusuf, on Monday in Lokoja, while presenting the report of the just concluded screening and verification of the State workforce, undertaken by the Government, said efforts are being made to relieve the financial burden on the State.

He added, that the ghost workers were discovered in Ministries, Departments, Agencies, MDAs, and in the 21 Local Government Councils in the State.

He said 7, 606 of the ghost workers, were discovered in the work force of local councils, while 5, 872 were discovered in the State work force.

Yusuf, said the exercise had reduced the joint workforce of the State and Local Governments from 88, 973 to 63, 870.

He further stated, that the monthly wage bill had also been reduced from N5.8 billion to N4.6 billion.

Yusuf said that the 929 workers who were illegally employed in the State in 2015 and 2016, were also among those categorised as ghost workers.

He stated that some workers who were categorised as being in the diaspora, but had been collecting their salaries for years, while residing in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and other cities across the country, were also affected.

He said the Committee relied on employee’s bio data verification from the Nigeria inter-bank payment settlement system, to identify the ghost workers.

He accused some ‘vested interest’ of muddling the report of the Screening Committee, by omitting the names of 14, 147 genuine workers, and replacing them with the names of uncleared staff.

Yusuf, who served as Chairman of the Back-up Committee that reviewed the report of the Screening Committee, suggested the adoption of the integrated and automated payroll system, to curb leakages.

He also suggested the establishment of pre-disbursement audit unit before payment of salaries.

He said all those who abetted and aided the fraud in the workforce of the State and Local Governments, should be identified and made to face the consequences of their actions.

Speaking after the presentation of the report, Governor Bello, said the discovery had justified the good intention of the government to embark on the screening and verification.

He inaugurated a 15-member Committee to review the report, saying that anybody with genuine complaint, should channel it through the Committee.

He promised to correct lopsidedness in the State civil service and block leakages.

“Less than two percent of the population should not be allowed to continue to corner the resources meant for 3.4 million people.

“This is unsustainable; the choice we have is to either reform the service, or continue with the distortions in the socio-economic life of our people,” Bello said.

The Governor accused previous administrations in the State, of abandoning governance, saying that his administration was determined to carry out comprehensive reforms of the civil service.

“This is a way of saying that we are not ready to continue with the past, and put permanent stop to the syndrome of ghost workers,” he said.