Government uncovers 12,000 ghost workers

The Adamawa Government says it has uncovered 12,609 ghost workers in the state’s local government payroll.Mr Maurice Vunobolki, the Chairman of the Local Government Staff Verification Committee in the state, disclosed this on Thursday while presenting the committee's report to Gov. Muhammadu Jibrilla in Yola.

Vunobolki said that 38,760 workforce was cleared and migrated to the e-payment data base as against 51,369 earlier presented to the committee. He said that over 5,000 workers did not turn up for the verification exercise, while 1,780 among those that turn up were under aged employees.

He said that the gross figure after validation as at May 2016 stood at N1,366,632,447.2, resulting in gross monthly consequence of N341,584,091.60 and N4,094,140,059.60 annually.

While thanking the governor for finding them worthy to serve in the committee, Vunobolki said the report contained findings, observations and recommendations for further action by the government.

Responding, Jibrilla lauded the committee for a job well done and vowed to prosecute anyone found wanting. The governor said that his administration was committed to addressing delay in payment of salaries at council level by placing council workers on first line charge.

He appealed to the local government workers to remain patient as their four months outstanding salaries would be paid before the end of June.

Jibrilla directed the Ministry of Local Government Affairs to furnish his office with details on local government/state joint account.