No fewer than 845 ‘ghost’ workers have been discovered in the Nasarawa Civil Service, with 325 other staff found to have overstayed.
This is contained in a report of a screening, verification and computerisation of payroll and personnel records of ministries, departments and agencies conducted in the month of August.
Presenting the report to Governor? Umaru Al-makura? yesterday in Lafia, the Chairman of the Committee, Alhaji? Shuaibu Ahmed, said that 21,405 staff were on the payroll of the state government with a wage bill of N1.93 billion before the exercise was conducted.
He said that the 845 perceived ‘ghost’ workers were those who did not turn up for the screening or had no files and were collecting N62.9 million as salaries monthly. ?
He, however, noted? that after the exercise, the total staff strength came down to 19, 982, while the? wage bill now stood at N1,639 billion.
He said the state Ministry of Education now has the highest number of staff strength of 7,838, with the state Boundary Commission having the least with three staff members.
Shuaibu pointed out that the monthly saving of the state following the exercise would be more than N295.1 million.
He said it was also discovered that there was no centralised payroll administration in the state that would have prevented such malpractice.
The committee chairman also cautioned the state government to be watchful against skyrocketing wage due to new appointments and added that in the month of August, about 80 per cent of the state’s resources were expended on salaries of less than one per cent of the state population.
He stressed the need for the state government to adopt the contributory pension scheme in order to effectively handle issues of retirement benefits.
He also recommended that the state government should expedite action on the establishment of a well-equipped, centralised ‘state computer centre’ to cater for the payroll of all MDAs as well as training of staff.
Receiving the report, the governor said that the exercise was not meant to witch-hunt anybody as it “marks a point of departure from? the past’’.
The governor said that the exercise was not intended to deprive people of their jobs but to formally secure it and also bring accountability, transparency and responsibility? to bear in governance.
“Before now, no one could give, with a measure of confidence, any accurate statistics of personnel, particularly on emolument and remunerations in the state.
“With this development, it becomes difficult for government to come up with any meaningful and effective planning because it will be dealing with ghost figures and get ghost results,” he said.
He said that the screening? would soon be carried out at the local government levels as well as the pension in order for the state to know precisely its stand in terms of resources accruable and the over head cost.
The governor added that the screening exercise with regards to adherence to the payment of the new National Minimum Wage was without any regrets.
“I would like to assure workers in the state that if the resource accruing to the state improves, the state will initiate and embark on another minimum wage,” he said. (NAN)
?