The Kwara State government has discovered 8,863 ghost workers on the payroll of the state and local government councils which is costing the state N437, 500, 513.56 monthly.
The Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, while submitting the report of the Kwara State Personnel Database Development Committee to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed at the Government House, on Monday had said the committee uncovered 8,863 suspected ghost workers on the payroll of both the state and local governments.
Gold, who is the alternate Chairman of the committee, stated that the 8, 863 personnel could not be verified in the just-concluded staff biometric verification.
He noted that the development could potentially save both the state and local governments N437, 500, 513.56 monthly.
Gold added that as of the time of commencing the exercise, the total number of staff on the payroll of both the state and local governments was 81, 446, but only 72, 583 of the workers and pensioners scaled through the verification process.
The SSG said that of the 35, 656 workers on the state government payroll, only 31, 652 were cleared and verified, leaving a total of 4,004 unverified personnel.
He added that out of the 45, 790 workers and pensioners on the payroll of the 16 LGs in the state, only 40, 931 were verified, which left 4, 859 unverified.
According to him, the committee recommended that the verification should be continuous and that the state government should implement a harmonized staff identification system, certificate verification and clock-in system, which should be deployed by the consultant at no cost to the government.
Ahmed in his response endorsed all the recommendations of the committee and also directed the state Ministry of Finance to adopt the committee’s report to prepare the payroll of both the local and state governments’ worker’s salaries henceforth.
The governor further directed that the ministry should warehouse the projected savings until it was ascertained that all workers and pensioners had been verified.
He thanked the consultant and members of the committee for the quality of work done and expressed confidence that with the submission of the report, there would be an effective payroll administration at both the local and state levels.
