Government discovers 7, 629 ghost workers in its payroll

The Kano State Government says it has discovered 7, 629 ghost workers in the ongoing biometrics verification exercise for civil servants in the state.

The state’s Head of Service, Alhaji Muhammad Na’iya, made the disclosure while briefing newsmen in Kano on Tuesday, saying that following the discovery, the state government will save over N283.5 million monthly.

According to him, the state government had concluded arrangements to delete their names from its payroll as from this month (April).

"We have given them ample time to appear before the verification committee but they failed to do so.

The HOS said that the committee also discovered 17 newly-recruited workers who had been collecting double salaries, amounting to N1.01 million monthly.

According to him, the affected workers would soon be prosecuted and dismissed from the service. He said as soon as the exercise was completed, the state government would compile the total number of such workers with a view to prosecuting them.

"After the exercise, all those found to be involved in the shady deal will be prosecuted, in addition to recovering the money,’’ he said.

The HOS explained that the verification exercise was initiated by the government to have in place a robust, integrated and comprehensive human resource and payment data base.

"In this interim exercise, a total of 86, 373 civil servants have so far been captured out of the over 150, 000 workers that are on the government’s payroll,” Na’iya added.