Benue State government uncovers 2,500 ghost workers, ghost schools, others

The Benue State Government says it has uncovered over 2,500 ghost workers and ghost schools on its payroll.

The discovery according to the government was made during the just concluded first phase of its staff verification and payroll audit for all teachers and local government staff.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to the Governor, Tersoo Kula, issued Thursday in Makurdi, blamed the delay in the payment of salaries of school teachers and local government staff on the verification exercise.

The CPS who expressed the regrets of the Governor over the delay said “the governor says the decision for the delay in the payment of salaries of the above mentioned workers was taken after the government discovered mindless padding of the wage bill, and other fraudulent manipulations on their payroll.

“The decision became necessary after the discovery, to enable the government sanitize and cleanse the payroll; to ascertain the true wage bill of the state and to know the genuine workers that are worth their wages.

“The first phase of the extensive staff verification and payroll audit for all teachers and local government staff has just been concluded, and it has already uncovered over 2,500 ghost workers that have already been removed from the payroll.

“The Governor identifies ghost workers, ghost schools, double dipping, unlawful employment, salary padding, payment to dead or retired individuals, unlawful replacement, inflation of the wage bill, as some of the payroll infractions discovered from the audit.

“He assures that, workers who were successfully screened will receive their salaries before the end of this week, noting that government is not only fishing out ghosts workers and removing the padding associated with payroll fraud, but also putting in measures to ensure the systems are protected going forward.”