BAUCHI State government officials have uncovered no fewer than 6,065 ghost workers on their civil service payroll following the conducting of a workers’ verification exercise in January this year.
Across the civil service in most states of Nigeria and the federal government, ghost workers abound in their thousands, as fraudulent staff boost the payroll and cash their cheques. State governments regularly carry out verification exercises during which civil servants are asked to come forward and identify themselves in person before they are paid.
According to Bauchi State governor Mohammed Abubakar, they discovered that the list was bloated due to two set of errors. He added that during the verification exercise they were human mistakes, which he apologised for, while there was also deliberate sabotage by certain people.
Governor Abubakar said: “During the exercise, we discovered 6,065 ghost workers on the payroll of the Bauchi State Government. This number could not be rated as small because even if you get 10 ghost workers, the exercise will be worth it as they will be taking much money illegally.
“There were lapses during the exercise and they were continuous but don’t forget, the forces that endangered this phenomenon of ghost workers are very strong forces. They have been entrenched over time and a lot of money is being siphoned out of the coffers of the government.
“For instance in education, we have asked every principal and headmaster to write a list of all his/her members of staff and sign under, knowing full well that he/she is going to be responsible for that list. So, we have a basis to continue with the exercise.”
While recalling that the exercise was done using the public servants’ bank verification number, the governor said the government would continue to conduct it. According to the governor his government would embark on yet another round of workers’ verification to enable it to access the federal government’s budget support programme.
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