Following the ongoing workers verification exercise in local councils, Abia State government, yesterday, announced it had identified 2,300 more ghost workers in its payroll, thereby, saving an additional N220 million from its monthly wage bill.
Governor Alex Otti’s Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Kazie Uko, in a statement, announced that this came barely three weeks after close to 5,000 names were removed from the state’s payroll, following the review of a last-minute employment scam conducted by the immediate past administration.
He said that the state’s Accountant General (AG), Njum Onyemenam, who spoke after a meeting with the governor, said the verification exercise was still ongoing, and that the state government hopes to make more savings. She added that the huge savings were made using a unified payment system.
Uko said: “Not less than 2,300 ghost workers have recently been weeded out of the payroll, using the unified payment system, and we hope to still identify more, as we continue with the exercise.”
The AG, who also confirmed that the state government had, last week, paid workers April salaries and June pensions to retirees, who, she said, were not paid by the Okezie Ikpeazu administration, indicated that local council staff members, who were omitted, due to failure to submit their verified payment schedule, would receive their salaries this week.
