No fewer than 2,500 ghost workers have been uncovered from the payroll of the 23 Local Government Areas in Benue State.
The state governor, Hyacinth Alia, disclosed this in a press statement issued by his spokesperson, Kula Tersoo, on Thursday in Makurdi.
The governor, said there was a need to sanitise and clean all the manipulations created by the past administration.
The statement said the probe into activities of LGAs during the last administration revealed mindless padding of the wage bills and manipulation of the payroll.
According to the governor, “the decision for the delay in the payment of salaries of the above-mentioned workers was taken after the government discovered mindless padding of the wage bill and other fraudulent manipulations on their payroll.
“The decision became necessary after the discovery, to enable the government sanitise and cleanse the payroll; to ascertain the actual wage bill of the state, and to know the genuine workers that are worth their wages.
He said “the first phase of an extensive staff verification and payroll audit for all teachers and local government staff has just been concluded, and it has already uncovered over 2500 ghost workers that have already been removed from the payroll.”
He said the probe identified ghost workers, ghost schools, double dipping, unlawful employment, salary padding, payment to dead or retired individuals, unlawful replacement, and inflation of the wage bill, as some of the payroll infractions discovered from the audit.”
The governor assured that workers who were successfully screened will receive their salaries before the end of this week.
He added that “government is not only fishing out ghosts workers and removing the padding associated with payroll fraud but also putting in measures to ensure the systems are protected going forward.”
The governor had earlier suspended the 23 local government chairmen to pave way for a thorough investigation into alleged maladministration in the council areas by the state assembly.
