Victor EzejaThe Abia State Government says it has detected and removed 2,300 Ghost names on the state’s payroll thereby saving additional N220 million on monthly wage bill.
A statement from the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Kazie Uko said the ghost names were detected in ongoing verification of workers in local government areas across the state.
This comes barely three weeks after close to 5,000 names were cleaned out of the state’s payroll after a review of the last-minute employment scam conducted by the immediate past government. That exercise saved the state about N250 million, monthly.
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State Accountant General, Njum Onyemenam, said the huge savings was made using a unified payment system.
Onyemenam, who spoke Monday after a meeting with the state Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, said the verification exercise was still ongoing and that the government hopes to make more savings.
“So far, we have been able to save an additional N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the local governments.
“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 Abia Accountant General said.
She confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries, left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees.
Also, local government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, will receive their salaries this week, Onyemenam said.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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