Of Pension and Ghost Workers
by
Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
Burtonsville, MD, USA
August 31, 2003
Some Excerpts:
1. Defence ministry discovers 24,000 phantom names in pensions audit - says Defence Minister Kwakwanso
MORE than 24,000 ghost pensioners were discovered in the recent army pensioners audit by the Ministry of Defence, its minister, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said. Kwankwaso, in an interactive session with the senior civilian staff of the ministry yesterday in Abuja, said that the exercise would be extended to all the departments. He told the officers that the staff auditing was aimed at reducing cost for the government to enable the ministry concentrate more on staff welfare. Kwankwaso said that August salary and pensions would be paid to staff through a pay parade, and that whoever refuses to show up in person would be considered a"ghost worker."
2. Pension Backlog Stands at N2 Trillion - says Presidential Advisor Julius Ihonvbere
Despite efforts being made by the Federal Govern-ment to mop the pension backlog, about N2 trillion is still being owed workers, said Professor Julius Ihonv-bere, a presidential adviser on policy and programmes monitoring.....
Ihonvbere also disclosed that the monthly pension bill of the Nigeria Railways which stands at N250 million and the monthly wage bill which stands at N210 million is a source of worry to the Federal Government. He added that the income from the corporation is a paltry sum. He also assured that the contributory scheme which will be sent to the National Assembly as a bill will "get the ball rolling."
3. NIGERIA: The spectre of ghost workers - The Guardian
At a recent appearance before the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Chief Joseph Naiyeju, reported that following a manpower verification exercise conducted by the Federal Government, personnel in the employ of the government were found to be 215,000 not the 255,000 which were in the official records at the inception of the Obasanjo administration in May 1999. This leaves a difference of 40,000 names, which in all likelihood, are non-existent. The Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma has also complained of difficulties being experienced in the payment of salaries to government workers because ministries do not have accurate figures of the staff strength of their departments. The Lagos State government has similarly announced the discovery of 4,000 ghosts in its "employ".
INTRODUCTION
In the Nigerian Federal civil service, according to a recent statement (July 2003) by Chief Ekaette, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, there 268,163 federal workers, 1,448 Federal political office holders, 1,152 members of staff of the Federal judiciary and 469 members of the National Assembly. Since Ekaette also put the total size of non-judiciary, non-National Assembly workers as 996,744, that means that there are also 728,581 members of the Police, the Military, Para-Military and Parastatals. Since the Militar/ParaMilitary is traditionally put at a strength of 80,000, the balance of about 653,581 must be of the Police and Parastatals. Back in May of 2002, a then newly-appointed Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun boasted that the 180,000-strong police force would be increased in size to more than 500,000 by the end of 2002.
QUOTE
LAGOS: The Nigerian police is to increase its workforce from 180-thousand to more than 500-thousand before the end of the year to fight high crime levels. New police chief Tafa Balogun says President Olusegun Obasanjo has approved the hiring of more officers. Balogun, who took over as police chief last month following the sacking of his predecessor, says 397-thousand new officers will be recruited this year to compliment the current size of 180-thousand. The Nigerian police chief says measures are also being taken to improve the welfare of the badly paid, ill trained and indisciplined police.
UNQUOTE
Assuming that the number of police officers is now conservatively really 400,000, that puts the size staff of Parastatals at 253,581.
Thus, in summary:
Federal Workers - 268,163
Parastatals - 253,581
Federal political officer holders - 1,448
National Assembly - 469
Judiciary workers - 1,152
Military/Paramilitary - 80,000
Police - 400,000
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Total - 1,004,813
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That means that about 1 million workers earn their pay directly from the Federal government, which, out of a population of 120 million, brings that percentage of government workers to roughly 0.85% of the total population.
Now since about 56% on Nigerians are above 15 years old, the percentage of officially employable people (i.e. labor force) working for government is really about 1.5%. However with an unemployment rate of about 30%, the percentage of those employed who work for the Federal government is 2.3%. Personnel costs of this tiny fraction consume 50-60% of the Federation account budget.
Contrast with the US: With a total population of about 280 million, Federal civilian workers population (agencies) was 2,704,015 in 2001; the military personnel strength was 1,384,812; 79% of the population is of age above 15; 5% unemployment rate in 2001; of total population, employed by Federal government is 1.5%; of the labor force is 1.85%; of the employed is 1.95%. Federal payroll ($10.5 billion) was about 0.54% of federal budget outlay 1,864 billion) in 2001. [Information from Time's 2003 World Almanac]
GHOST WORKERS
Back in October 2000, about 5,000 ghost workers - not pensioners - were discovered among military ranks, according to an "impressed" then Defence Minister Gen. Theophilus Danjuma. Then in April 2001, Chief Joseph Naiyeju, Accountant General of the Federation, reported to the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation that the number of personnel in government employ was actaully 215,000 rather than 255,000. The non-existent 40,000 names were 'ghost workers'.
Now, in July 2003, the Defence ministry ALONE - courtesy new Defence minister Kwakwanso, has discovered 24,000 names in its pension audit.
No wonder a minister once estimated that ghost workers may be costing Nigeria as much as $50 million ( N7 billion ) per month - or N84 billion annually !
Imagine!
I do not know whether any one of you can run your own home and be paying a ghost worker, neither can you run your own private business and be paying ghost workers! In fact, you would be happy for those to be "workers," and yet be "ghosts", because ghosts don't need food, and hence don't need pay.
But not in Nigeria: "ghosts" even seem to need more housing and food than real humans. At the rate that we are going, there may be more ghost workers than human workers in Nigeria. With the upcoming monetisation program, those ghosts will also have their benefits "monetized" - including their housing allowances, despite the fact that ghosts live in "Iroko" and a few other kinds of trees, according to Yoruba traditional beliefs.
PENSION ISSUES
The pension issue is another time bomb in Nigeria, particularly in a situation where there has been no workers' contributory pension all of these years. Even in a country like the US, pension (social security) benefits and their actuarial implications pervade financial discourse in the polity - that is in a country where workers contribute to their own pension, and those pensions are invested in worthy ventures to yield even more money before they are touched.
In Nigeria, We are not only talking about pensions to ghosts, but pensions increased understandably to such new high levels so that the few who can receive it can enjoy a life commensurate to when they retired. The unfortunate result is that these new pensions are now paid in the breach, and there are now many more who have to go completely without.
In light of bastardized Naira, non-conscientious government payment of its contributions into the pension funds, and their insolvency/bad management, there is ABSOLUTELY no magic to solve this pension problem for those who have retired and paid no contributions: it is a hard word to write, but until they ALL DIE, their pensions will be uncertain from month to month, because workers and pensioners alike have to be paid from the same pool of oil money.
EPILOGUE
Nigeria owes international creditors $31 billion - or N4 trillion. It owes internal creditors, including the Central Bank, about N1.5 trillion. It now owes pension of N2 trillion to its citizens. This does not include unpaid salaries - maybe another N1 trillion?
Abuja, we have a problem here!
Luckily, some of those may be "ghost debts" that we will never have to pay, if we knuckle down to find them.
So, the quicker:
1. salaries and allowances of workers commensurate with our national income; and in general concerted financial discipline in ALL ramifications;
2. workers begin to contribute MANDATORILY to their own pension, with encouragement of worker-managed pension plans;
3. MANDATORY savings plans are instituted for workers;
4. information technology is deployed to eliminate the ghost-worker scourge; and those officials that must be aiding and abetting it severely punished for economic sabotage;
the better for the country.
BIBILIOGRAPHY
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko3.htm
Of Salaries, Pension and Unemployment in Nigeria
Mobolaji E. Aluko; March 3, 2002
_______________________________________________________
SOME NEWS REPORTS
ThisDay
August 30, 2003
Defence ministry discovers 24,000 phantom names in pensions audit
Friday, August 29, 2003
ABUJA— MORE than 24,000 ghost pensioners were discovered in the recent army pensioners audit by the Ministry of Defence, its minister, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said. Kwankwaso, in an interactive session with the senior civilian staff of the ministry yesterday in Abuja, said that the exercise would be extended to all the departments. He told the officers that the staff auditing was aimed at reducing cost for the government to enable the ministry concentrate more on staff welfare.
Kwankwaso said that August salary and pensions would be paid to staff through a pay parade, and that whoever refuses to show up in person would be considered a"ghost worker."
"The pay parade is necessary to enable the ministry cut unnecessary costs, and unless something is done on this issue, it will continue to affect all the staff as what belongs to you goes to some individuals", he said. He said that the programme would also assist the ministry in ensuring that salaries, pensions and allowances were not only paid to staff, but also as at when due.
On the monetisation of fringe benefits, the minister assured the staff that it would be implemented with "human face", adding that it was introduced to assist the public servants in the country. He said problems facing staff will be solved as long as these do not contradict the ongoing monetisation policy of the federal government.
"The monetisation policy is very critical. It affects everybody from the minister, down to the cleaner. It is the federal government's policy which is beyond the ministry, but we are ready to do everything possible to push away its negative parts," he said.He solicited the support and cooperation of the staff to move the ministry forward. The highlight of the parley was the presentation of a position paper on monetisation by the ministry's senior staff association to the minister.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that also in attendance at the interactive session, were the Minister of State for Defence, Mr Ronald Oritsejafor, the permanent secretary and the directors of the ministry.
_____________________________________________________
Pension Backlog Stands at N2 Trillion
From Constance Ikokwu in Enugu
Despite efforts being made by the Federal Govern-ment to mop the pension backlog, about N2 trillion is still being owed workers, said Professor Julius Ihonv-bere, a presidential adviser on policy and programmes monitoring.
Also, the recent reforms embarked upon by the Federal Government may have reduced the cost of running the administration by about N50 billion in the past 18 months through the "Due Process Mechanism," a system aimed at recovering money from wasted contracts.
Ihonvbere made the disclosure yesterday in Enugu while delivering a lecture titled: "The Obasanjo Second Term in Office: Reinventing and Repo-sitioning Nigeria for Growth, Stability and Development" at the on-going 2003 annual general conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).
He said the Due Process Mechanism introduced by the Presidency has ensured that wasted monies are put into capital development, while regretting that greedy contractors, politicians and bureaucrats have milked the country dry over the past decades. He said the recovered money has been channelled into education, water supply, health services, roads, technology and industrial development.
Ihonvbere also disclosed that the monthly pension bill of the Nigeria Railways which stands at N250 million and the monthly wage bill which stands at N210 million is a source of worry to the Federal Government. He added that the income from the corporation is a paltry sum. He also assured that the contributory scheme which will be sent to the National Assembly as a bill will "get the ball rolling."
The special adviser said major nations of the world built their structures and cities from pensions funds that are guaranteed and invested properly, while saying that Nigeria will do the same thing. He criticised politicians, businessmen and other Nigerians who evade tax and those who carry about forged tax payers. "This is ungodly and unpatriotic," he noted.
According to him, the fight against waste has been quite successful as wastage incurred through public officials has been curbed. He disclosed that the former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim returned 38 cars to the government when he left. And over 78 officers and countless aides attended to him alone. He said there were over 10,000 policemen serving as orderlies to public and private citizens and that government will henceforth no longer pay for maids, drivers, personal assistants, and security guards of public officials. He said some individual and top government officials even had over 14 official cars, thereby constituting a problem whereby over 75 per cent of income is spent on overheads.
Talking about reforms in the civil service, he said the mind boggling stealing of public funds going on will be curbed within the system. He questioned the rationale behind an arrangement in which the Federal Ministry of Works for instance should have 48,000 workers, with more than 60 per cent technologically illiterate, while laziness, inefficiency, ineffectiveness, demotivation and "I-don't-care" attitude were the order of the day. According to him, the reforms proposed by the government in this sector would be comprehensive and would be directed at introducing new technology, redefining its mission and creating growth and stability.
He emphasised that the implementation of these radical reforms will be costly and painful but that "there is absolutely no going back on this and with time it would cover all government departments and parastatals."
"We hope the state and local governments would follow the example set by the Federal Government. This is one of the best policies ever initiated in Nigeria since political independence," he said.
Ihonvbere said the president has set up an economic management team consisting of technocrats and experts. The team, he said, meets every Wednesday before the Federal Executive Council meeting. He explained that not all members of the team are members of the council as less than five per cent of the members attend FEC meetings. "Economic and management issues are subjected to vigorous debates and strategies for moving the economy forward and related sectors are addressed by the team," he said.
He noted that many of the technocrats owe no debt to any political party or godfather as their appointments were solely based on merit and past records of commitment.
On the local government reforms, he said the report of the committee set up to look into the issue will be made available to Nigerians to study, debate and make further imputs. Ihonvbere said privatisation of government owned enterprises will continue and that the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will continue its work aimed at sanitising the country.
On the budget office, he said efforts are being made to eliminate deficit financing of projects and that a procurement commission is being established to eliminate over-invoicing and duplication of purchases.
He charged lawyers to use their special knowledge and training to promote development in the country. According to him, law in Nigeria has become a weapon of domination and exploitation and implored the judiciary to desist from all sorts of criminal activities that taint the image of the country.
__________________________________________
NIGERIA: The spectre of ghost workers
www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial2/en817901.html
The Guardian, April 9, 2001
At a recent appearance before the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Chief Joseph Naiyeju, reported that following a manpower verification exercise conducted by the Federal Government, personnel in the employ of the government were found to be 215,000 not the 255,000 which were in the official records at the inception of the Obasanjo administration in May 1999. This leaves a difference of 40,000 names, which in all likelihood, are non-existent.
The Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma has also complained of difficulties being experienced in the payment of salaries to government workers because ministries do not have accurate figures of the staff strength of their departments. The Lagos State government has similarly announced the discovery of 4,000 ghosts in its "employ".
These reports give cause for concern about the public administration system in Nigeria and the integrity of its procedures. In December last year, the payment of wages of federal civil servants was delayed for weeks because a verification exercise had not been concluded. A number of disturbing questions arise. Who are these ghost workers? How are they created and how are the funds used for paying them approved and then funnelled away? What are the records generation and preservation procedures that permit this level of fraud to persist for so long? It is axiomatic to think that these records are cross-checked at source periodically. If those who conduct the checks are transparent and honest, they should have found the "mysterious" trails of the vouchers for the payments. Why is it that no culprit has been caught and exposed in public or taken to the Mustapha Akanbi anti-corruption commission to discourage "ghost cloning" officials from pursuing their nefarious motives?
The fact that these normal bureaucratic measures of accountability have been taken two years in an ostensibly open, democratic government, casts doubt on the efficacy of the instruments for good governance. We acknowledge however, that it is the government´s determination in this regard that has brought the scandal to the open. The phenomenon of ghost workers may have been long with us. But, the variety that has blossomed into a huge scam apparently developed in the fertile minds of members of the pay roll corps of the military during the 1967-70 civil war. Taking advantage of the war-time tactic not to publicly disclose the names of soldiers killed in action in the course of the prosecution of the civil war, the officers in charge of pay kept the money for themselves. In public service throughout the country, there have been instances where names of people who left employment as a result of death, change of jobs or pursuit of further education were never properly reflected in the records. Some corrupt officials continued to draw the emoluments of such people. Over months, these amounts ran into millions of naira.
The affected staff on behalf of whom the payments were made are innocent of the crime. But it ought not to be so difficult for the government to uncover any such past scams. The recovery of looted public money from Gen. Abacha and his cronies is a result of the kind of retrospective search that is required here. The epidemic proportion that the matter of ghost workers seems to have assumed demands that government tackle the challenge with all seriousness. The manpower audit conducted by the Federal Government last year was a step in the right direction.
The government should not relent on its efforts. The manner in which the Lagos State government was able to unmask 4,000 ghost names within the ranks of its work force raises the issue of the possible culpability of government audit departments in the perpetration of this economic crime. The discovery resulted from the use of external consultants in the conduct of manpower surveys in government departments. Apparently, the government´s internal audit units became compromised. This is a very frightening negligence of duty. There are clear laws to deal with such criminal conducts. The size of the government work force is not a justification for the existence of "ghost workers". Some multinational companies operating in the country have a work force of more than 50,000 including contractors and auxiliaries. The companies have not suffered losses on account of unidentified persons called ghosts. In most case, the accounting superintendents of these firms are Nigerian professionals. The government should take more decisive steps to exterminate this fraud. There should be regular, systemic and widespread audit of personnel in the employ of government institutions.
These exercises should be supplemented with quarterly data forms to be filled by government employees. The data should contain the recent photograph and finger prints of every member of staff. The information accessed from these forms should be fed into computers and made available to the finance and national planning ministries so that staff wage data can be matched with financial allocations. This practice should also take place at the state and local government levels. External consultants should be hired for this purpose if the Nigerian ones do not believe enough in the oaths of their profession to deliver transparent service in this regard.
In an age when details about the minutest matter can be got through information technology, a government in Nigeria should have no excuse spending public money to pay non-existent staff.
But why have they not arrested and prosecuted those involved and try to recover the illegal payments and send the culprits to prison? Same question is applicable to fuel subsidy scams.
On Jun 3, 2016 11:53 AM, "Mobolaji Aluko" <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:----QUOTE"A total of 38,760 in the workforce was cleared and migrated to the e-payment database against 51,369 earlier presented to my committee," Mr. Vunoboki said. "519 did not turn up for the verification exercise, while 1,780 were under-aged employees, while the balance of 563 were retired by age or years of service" Mr. Vunobolki said the gross salaries of local government councils, Local Education Authority and Primary Health Care Development Agency were N1.71 billion as at July 2015, with the gross figure after validation at N1.37 billion as at May 2016. This has resulted in gross monthly bill of N3416 million and N4.1 billion annually, he said.
UNQUOTEPREMIUM TIMESAudit uncovers 12,609 ghost workers in Adamawa LGs payroll
More than 11 months after a committee was constituted to audit staff in all the local government areas in Adamawa state, about 12,609 ghost workers have be uncovered.
The chairman of the 13-man committee, Maurice Vunoboki, said it was also discovered that 1,405 appointments violated executive approvals, while 2,731 irregular employments did not conform to the Teachers Salary Scale (TSS).
"A total of 38,760 in the workforce was cleared and migrated to the e-payment database against 51,369 earlier presented to my committee," Mr. Vunoboki said. "519 did not turn up for the verification exercise, while 1,780 were under-aged employees, while the balance of 563 were retired by age or years of service"
Mr. Vunobolki said the gross salaries of local government councils, Local Education Authority and Primary Health Care Development Agency were N1.71 billion as at July 2015, with the gross figure after validation at N1.37 billion as at May 2016.
This has resulted in gross monthly bill of N3416 million and N4.1 billion annually, he said.
In a related development, the state governor, Mohammadu Bindow, while receiving the report on Local government staff verification on Thursday, promised to make payment of local government workers salaries a first line charge item.
The committee was set up in July 2015 to verify the state local governments' workforce with a view to creating a database for effective implementation of e-payment salary system.
Mr. Bindow said the first line charge would give priority to prompt payment of salaries to official council workers, adding that their salaries would henceforth be paid at the same time with the state government workers.
He appealed to the local government workers to remain patient as their four months outstanding salaries would be paid before the end of this month.
The governor vowed to prosecute any government official found to have been involved in any financial misconduct in the local government administration.
He directed the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to furnish his office with details and updates on local government/state joint account.
On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 12:54 AM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:QUOTE"We met staff strength of between 66,000 and 68,000. Our neighbouring Edo State has staff strength of about 21,000. A lot of people are not in this country but they find themselves on our payroll, while many other persons are working elsewhere and they are on our payroll. A policeman has been discovered during promotion interview, to be working and receiving salary as a civil servant with the state government," Okowa saidUNQUOTEDelta State Government Promises to Fish out Ghost Workers in the State
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa says Delta Government has put machinery in place to fish-out ghost workers from its 66,000 workforce.
The governor said this when he presented his First Year Performance Report in Asaba on Monday.
He said his administration inherited between 66,000 and 68,000 workforce which he described as huge, given the current economic situation.
He said the decision to fish out the ghost workers was not to retrench workers but to ensure that those working earned their wages.
He, however, appealed to workers to support government to fish out those who were not working but receiving salaries.
"We met staff strength of between 66,000 and 68,000. Our neighbouring Edo State has staff strength of about 21,000. A lot of people are not in this country but they find themselves on our payroll, while many other persons are working elsewhere and they are on our payroll. A policeman has been discovered during promotion interview, to be working and receiving salary as a civil servant with the state government," Okowa said.
On the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the governor said that the state was careful not to make mistakes.
He said there were many other states that had not adopted TSA and that it was not peculiar to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) states.
"We have to understudy it to be sure that we do not make any mistake, we are aware that there are lots of gains in it. We are also aware that we need to apply it rightly; otherwise we will have different challenges. We may be going into a modified TSA," he said.
On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 8:31 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:African ExaminerLG Scribe arrested as Bayelsa LG monthly wage bill drops from N200m to N30m
Posted by Wole OduwoleBayelsa, Latest News, NewsFriday, May 27th, 2016BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The monthly wage bill of Sagbama Local Government in Bayelsa state has dropped from N200 million to N30 million, it was learnt on Friday.
The situation has therefore led to the arrest of the Secretary to the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) in the area over alleged falsification of nominal roll and over bloated wage bill.
Addressing a press conference in Yenagoa, chairman of the caretaker committee of the council, Mr. Michael Magbisa, stated that over eleven fictitious names were discovered on the wage bill.
While attributing the delay in the payment of workers' salaries to fraudulent practices, he said this necessitated the council's decision to embark on staff verification audit from 2007 to 2016.
Magbisa recalled that the last time the LG carried out employment was in 2007, adding that he was shocked to discover fictitious names and backdated employment on the payment vouchers and nominal roll from 2007 to 2016.
Speaking on the staff strength of the education authority, the council boss pointed out that, the education board alone has over 200 staff, with a wage bill of N13.1m in 2012, which has risen to N60.1m in 2016.
He also spoke on the discovery of the anomalies in the payment vouchers, the nominal roll and the huge wage bill, adding that on assumption of office, he decided to audit the number of staff to reduce the huge wage bill.
Magbisa said he was shocked when he demanded for the 2007 to 2016 payment vouchers and nominal roll from the secretary of the education authority, who told him that, the 2012 flood had destroyed all the documents.
According to Mgbisa, he was not convinced, which prompted him to write a memo to the SUBEB secretary concerning the missing documents, adding that, the documents were released to him where he discovered the monumental fraud and anomalies.
On the payment of teachers' salary, Magbisa explained that, by next week Friday, 3rd of June, the audit exercise would have been concluded for the teachers' salaries to be paid.
Already, council workers have been paid their one month salary and the balance of seven months would be paid as soon as the verification exercise is concluded, promising to take drastic action against anyone involved in the fraud discovered, as all the workers are complaining the hardship in the delay in the payment of salaries.
On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 8:43 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:--QUOTE"It will interest you to know that there are some people on the payroll that are residing in Lagos, Abuja and even Ghana and are drawing salaries in Bayelsa. I am not exaggerating, it is happening.UNQUOTEOne hopes that these savings will be properly re-directed, and not used to employ MORE workers to replace the ghost workers.Bolaji AlukoPREMIUM TIMES
Bayelsa uncovers 50 dead people, 765 illegally employed workers in SUBEB payroll
The Bayelsa State government on Thursday said it had uncovered payroll fraud in the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), with the discovery of over 765 illegally employed teachers in the state's local government councils.
Fifty dead persons were also found on the payroll of Ogbia Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) alone, a statement by the state, sent to PREMIUM TIMES, said.
The discovery of illegal workers cut across the eight local government areas, with
1. Ogbia Local Government Education Authority, (LGEA) leading with 230 illegal employees.
Others are
2. Southern Ijaw LGEA (192);
3. Sagbama LGEA (136);
4, Ekeremor LGEA (108);
5. Brass LGEA (9);
6. Nembe LGEA (25);
7. Yenagoa LGEA (25); and
8. Kolokuma/Opokuma LGEA (40).
The Executive Secretary of SUBEB, Walton Liverpool, said on Thursday in Yenagoa that by the end of the verification exercise, the government would be saving over N100 million monthly.
Mr. Liverpool said, "These sets of workers were illegally employed by fraudsters and now parading as civil servants. As you are all aware, since the inception of the present administration, an embargo has been placed on fresh employment, but some people went behind to employ their cronies and backdated it to 2007.
'In the course of our investigation, after cross checking the 2007 nominal roll and vouchers with the recent ones, it was discovered that over 765 names have been infused. This has been the practice of some unscrupulous officers in the LGEAs.
"Some of the affected workers are being aided by the LGEA staff. As I am talking to you now, one of them is cooling off at the State Criminal Investigations Department and more will still be arrested.
"It will interest you to know that there are some people on the payroll that are residing in Lagos, Abuja and even Ghana and are drawing salaries in Bayelsa. I am not exaggerating, it is happening.
"By the time, we conclude this exercise, more names will be discovered. I have my facts; those perpetrating the atrocities are not from the Board Headquarters, but from the LGEAs. With this discovery, the state government has been able to save N100 million from SUBEB alone.
"At the end of the exercise, the state government will save over N100 million from the education sector. As you are all aware, the State governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, has directed all the headmasters and principals to prepare their monthly vouchers
On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 6:39 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:My People:43,000 ghost workers - from federal security agencies payroll alone....Bleed, bleed, bleeding.........that is why we must all continue to support the TSA/IPPIS/GIFMIS/BVN comprehensive implementation.....so that "ghost worker" issue can be minimized/elminated once and for all....Minister Adeosun gets it.....Bolaji Aluko
FG discovers 43,000 ghost workers, saves N50bn
The Head of the Continuous Audit team of the Federal Government, Mr Mohammed Dikwa, on Tuesday said N50 billion was saved so far through the audit of security agencies payroll.
Dikwa said this in Abuja at a meeting between the Continuous Audit team, Minister of Finance and Heads of Para-Military agencies to discuss ways to clean up the payroll of the security agencies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Mohammadu Buhari had set up the Continuous Audit team to look into the payroll of all Federal Government's Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The team had already embarked on the audit of the Military payroll and enrolling them on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
"Since we started the continuous audit programme, we have saved about N50 billion and over 43,000 ghost workers have been removed from the payroll of the federal government.
"And as we go on, we are very sure that we will continue to reduce the cost of federal government payroll.
"Please note the cost is not related to ghost workers alone but with allowances which we believe have to be trimmed down so that we can manage the cost of governance,'' he said.
Dikwa said that the officers from the account departments of all the para-militray agencies were currently undergoing training on IPPIS and the Government Management Information System (GIFMIS)
He said the plan was to have all the agencies enrolled on the IPPIS and GIFMIS at the end of the month once the training was completed.
Similarly, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said the audit of the para-military payroll would focus mainly on non-regular allowances of security officers.
She said initial investigations had revealed that these allowances had created avenues for unscrupulous persons within the system to steal money.
"The president has given the directive that all ministries and agencies of the Federal Government be enrolled on the IPPIS latest December, 2016.
"This meeting is to discuss the modalities of how this will be achieved; specifically, there are number of allowances described as the non-regular allowances.
"We have to make sure that these non-regular allowances are paid directly to those who are serving. And the best way to do that is through an automated system.
"This system will be linked to BVN so the money is going to specific individuals rather than being diverted elsewhere.
"Whoever is paid irregular allowances for hazard, risk or other extraneous factors, it is important that the money gets to them.
"The people taking the risk should be paid, otherwise the service they are expected to render will be in jeopardy,'' she said.
Adeosun said that one of the advantages of the IPPIS was that delays in payment of salaries and allowances of security personnel would be a thing of the past.
She reassured members that the details gathered through the IPPIS would be kept safe so that identities of security operatives would not be compromised.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Mr Bassey Akpanyung, pledged the ministry's support to ensure that all the security agencies under its control complied for the success of the process.
NAN reports that heads of Customs, Immigration, Prisons, Police, Fire Service and Civil Defence were present at the meeting.
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