BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – The Bauchi Government is hugely pained that the State has lost a whopping N1.062 billion to ghost workers and pensioners in the last four years.
It said this regrettable financial loss, which occurred between June 2016 and January 2020, was orchestrated by the fraudulent activities of civil servants in its employment.
According to the Government, this ugly situation has really set the State backwards in terms of social and infrastructural development, thereby making general progress very difficult.
The resolve of Governor Bala Mohammed-led administration to clean the state and local governments’ payrolls has resulted in mind-boggling revelations that from June 2016 to January 2020, about 259 ghost workers were used to siphon public funds unnoticed by the immediate past administration.
The State Commissioner of Finance, Umar Sanda Ahmed disclosed at a media briefing on Wednesday after the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting that the cartel did a lot of damage to the State economy and this will take years to rebuild.
Ahmed explained that on the State payroll alone, 193 people were involved in perpetrating the fraud with over N270 million lost in the process while the local government payroll had 66 people collecting over N792 million using fictitious names.
He said; “The total amount of fraud for both the state and local government payrolls is N1.062 billion” adding that the problem also extended to those employed in the pre-service scheme, including Doctors, Nurses, Radiographers and other medical staff that were bonded based on the amount they spent by the time they finished.
The Commissioner said; “instead of them to come back and work because they are still in the employment of the state government, they ran away and took appointment elsewhere yet they were drawing monthly salaries and other allowances from the coffers of government.”
Ahmed further explained that; “The decision taken by the Council is that letters should be written to them so that they can come back to serve out their Bonds and if they refused, they should be prosecuted while whatever amount they must have drawn will be recovered from them”
On the likelihood of prosecuting those found culpable, Ahmed said government has arrested some culprits and handed them over to the Police but hinted that the exercise is an ongoing process.
“We’ve been arresting the culprits but the problem is that they always change their names. We’ve not taken any definite decision on where to take the culprits because it is an ongoing process.
“Some of the civil servants so far found guilty were interrogated by the DSS. At the first instance, those arrested were sent to the Police while the leader of the syndicate is with the DSS undergoing interrogation. As we are discovering them, we’ll hand them over to the security agencies.”
“We are also liaising with the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice so that names of those found guilty will be published in the National Dailies,” he said
Ahmed added that: “His Excellency has vowed that he wants to leave a legacy, to make the issue of these ghost workers, a thing of the past.”
In his comments, Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aliyu Maigoro said State the government will not spare those fingered among the ghost medical personnel.
“Those doctors that absconded, we are going after them. We are working with the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in order to ensure that we prosecute them. We will also go after those who went on study leave without approval”, Maigoro assured
He disclosed that a total of 1,279 ghost workers, including 100 doctors, have been detected in his Ministry so far.
The issue of ghost workers has remained a serious challenge for the state government, resulting in the loss of several millions of Naira every month.
Unfortunately, this development has kept the monthly wage bill over bloated with the State unable to employ new workers or promote those due and qualified.
