Panel says Kogi lost N213b to ghost workers in 13 years

• Governor Bello vows to end syndrome

A screening committee constituted by Kogi State Government has discovered the state lost over N213 billion to ghost workers in 13 years.

The breakdown of the report indicated the government was losing N16 billion yearly and N1.3 billion monthly to ghost workers and unintended beneficiaries.

Chairman of the back-up committee for the analysis of the screening, who is also the state Auditor-General, Mr. Yusuf Okala, made the disclosure at the public presentation of the report of the committee yesterday.

He explained that about 88, 973 people were on the payroll as at the time the screening exercise commenced and had a monthly wage bill of N5.84 billion.

The Auditor General said the committee screened workers in state ministries, departments and agencies, local government departments, local government education authorities, state and local government pensions board.

He, however, said upon the conclusion of the screening exercise 63, 870 workers were cleared, reducing the wage bill to N4. 443 billion

Okala explained that the screening exercise revealed that there were irregularities in the state civil service, with 532 employments hurriedly made in January before the inception of the present administration, while 114 were drawing salaries in more than two paying points and 119 were found to have invalid bank verification numbers (BVN).

He, however, noted that the exercise was not completely perfect as there was infiltration by the organised labour, which intended to embarrass the state government.

Okala said the committee recommended the prosecution of those found culpable in the looting of the state through the ghost workers scam.

He wondered why 13 labour leaders, who participated in the screening exercise refused to sign the outcome of the report, while 17 of the screening members signed the report.

While accepting the committee’s report, Governor Yahaya Bello pledged to put an end to ghost workers in state saying, it was sad that some people were hiding under the civil service to plunder the wealth of the state.

The governor, who later inaugurated a 15-man technical review committee to look into complaints expressed displeasure with the organised labour who he said were carried along in the screening exercise but later turned around to instigate the workers to embark on strike for their selfish reasons.

He also pledged to ensure that all the funds of the state that were carted away would be recovered.

The governor said it would be unfair to spend the state’s resources on only 2 percent of its population, saying, “We are putting a permanent end to ghost workers syndrome.”

Bello also blamed the organised labour in the state for attempting to hold his government down against efforts at sanitising the civil service.