The Bauchi State Government said it had uncovered no fewer than 6,065 ghost workers on its payroll.
The shocking discovery was following the workers’ verification, which the state government carried out in January this year.
The state Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, disclosed this during an
interactive session with members of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria
Union of Journalists, Bauchi State Council, at the Government House,
Bauchi, on Sunday.
He said there were two set of errors in the last phase of the
verification. The errors, he said, were human mistake, which he
apologised for, while he described the other as “deliberate sabotage.”
“During the exercise, we discovered 6,065 ghostworkers on the payroll
of the Bauchi State Government. This number could not be rated as small
because even if you get 10 ghost workers, the exercise will be worth it
as they will be taking much money illegally.
“There were lapses during the exercise and they were continuous.
Don’t forget, the forces that endangered this phenomenon of ghost
workers are very strong forces. They have been entrenched over time and a
lot of money is being siphoned out of the coffers of the government.
“Those forces will not fold their arms and allow us to put a stop to
their activities; so they were fighting us all through. It is not as if
it will happen today and stop tomorrow. They are creating all sorts of
bottlenecks for the system and that is why I’m saying the verification
is going to continue,” the governor said,
Abubakar, while recalling that the last round of workers’
verification was done using the public servants’ Bank Verification
Number, said the government would continue with the conduct of the
exercise physically with various means devised for the MDAs heads to do
it themselves.
“For instance in education, we have asked every principal and
headmaster to write a list of all his/her members of staff and sign
under, knowing full well that he/she is going to be responsible for that
list. So, we have a basis to continue with the exercise,” he stated.
The governor, who said he could not disclose the amount so far saved
from the past verification, attributed the inability to the garnishee
order placed by an Industrial Court against the account of the state
government for the non-payment of the April 2016 workers’ salaries.
He said that his government would embark on yet another round of
workers’ verification to enable it to access the Federal Government’s
budget support programme.
“So, verification is the policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria
and it is also the policy of the Bauchi State Government, but I said we
in Bauchi are going to do it differently,” he said.
“The verification is going to be routine; the heads of the MDAs will
continue with the exercise as their responsibility,” he said.
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