16th December, 2016
A nationwide survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria [NAN] reveals massive distortion of payrolls by civil servants who defraud governments through inclusion of fictitious names.
In most of the states where the biometric verification was conducted, thousands of names of fictituous workers were found and expunged from the payrolls.
Already, hundreds of civil servants discovered receiving multiple salaries are facing various disciplinary actions across the country.
Stakeholders were unanimous that the application of technology in capturing the data of civil servants would eliminate the ghost worker syndrome.
In Oyo State, the state government has so far expunged 16,532 workers and pensioners from its payroll.
They were hitherto collecting multiple salaries, or involved in age falsification and other infractions.
The figure emanated from a total of 100,259 workers and pensioners screened by the ministries, departments, agencies and tertiary institutions in the state.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Olalekan Alli, said those involved would defend their action before a four-man panel set up by the government.
“We want to ascertain the actual number of employees in the regular employment of the state by various categories and determine who is a bonafide beneficiary of the salaries, wages and pensions being paid by government.
“We will ascertain the level of compliance in respect of mode and format of payment of salaries, e.g. payment into bank accounts, ensuring recipients have the mandatory Nigeria Uniform Bank Account Number and BVN numbers,’’ he said.
Mr Soji Eniade, the State Head of Service, also told newsmen that 2,021 fictitious names were weeded out from the payroll through the use of BVN.
“Out of the 2,021 identified through the BVN, 1,432 were pensioners from the state, 84 pensioners from the local government, while 505 are from other sectors of the service,” he said.
Mr Abiodun Olakanmi, Chairman, Ogun State chapter of Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, disclosed that partnership with workers’ unions would further help to eliminate ghost workers.
“Once, we go through our schedules of remitted deductions and pay slips, we can easily determine those who are no longer our members that are still being paid salaries,” he said.
According to him, the fraud is perpetrated with the connivance of top staff of ministries, departments and agencies, stressing that the problem will continue, unless those involved are prosecuted.
Mrs Bose Daramola, the Chairperson, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ondo State Chapter, suggested the use of BVN to totally eliminate ghost workers syndrome from government payrolls.
He noted that the verification was not very effective, as some retirees, whose names were not removed from civil service payroll were captured, thus allowing them to collect salary and pension at the same time.
“My advice is for employers to add BVN to the data capturing as this will strengthen the process and keep out ghost workers.
“Having two BVN is impossible and even bank accounts are linked to the number, so it makes it easy to detect when someone is paid multiple salaries; it’s the only solution,” she said
In Kwara, the government said N437 million is being saved monthly after it detected 8,863 ghost workers on its payroll and those of the 16 local councils.
Alhaji Isiaka Gold, the SSG and the Alternate Chairman of the Personnel Data Base Development Committee, said 72, 583 workers were verified as genuine staff out of the 81,446 on the payroll of the state and local governments.
Alhaji Kazeem Adekanye, the Transition Implementation Committee Chairman for Irepodun Local Government Council, said ineffective administrative procedures were perpetrating the ghost worker syndrome.
“Majority of the civil service administration procedures at the three tiers of government still depend largely on the old obsolete system.
“This is in spite of the global advancement in computer to detect fraudulent practices.
“It is only when the bubble burst that the biometric system is deployed to detect such an anomaly,’’ he said.
Adekanye said that the gains of the system were short-lived due to the insincerity of some public office holders.
“Every elected leader is always keen in incorporating their families and associates into the civil service system during their tenure.
“So it is in such process that all manner of processes are deployed to perpetrate the act leading to over bloated system,” he said.
Mr Femi Oladipo, the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) in the council, however, said the biometric system had proved to be effective in detecting ghost workers.
Oladipo also blamed politicians for the gross abuse of the nation’s civil service procedures, which had contributed to the ghost workers syndrome.
“Our politicians should learn to be upright and diligent, they should shy away from corrupting our civil service administrative system for their personal gains and ego,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Anbali Fatai, a senior official in the office of the Head of Service in Osun, said that the biometric data capture started in 2012 had saved millions of naira for government.
“The bio-metric data collection has really helped us in the state to get rid of ghost workers, and also ascertain those with falsified results, which has resulted in cut in the wage bill,” Fatai said.
Also speaking, Mr Akinyemi Olatunji, the Chairman of Trade Union Congress in Osun, blamed the problem on poor documentation and corruption fuelled by poor welfare.
Mr Adebanjo Ajayi, the Director of Press and Publicity, Ministry of Information in Osun, said the biometric data capturing had helped to reduce the cost of governance in terms of salaries, allowances and other benefits.
In Ekiti State, the government said it uncovered 350 ghost workers after it conducted a staff verification exercise.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi, told NAN that the state was loosing as much as N1.09 billion yearly to the ghost workers.
Chief Toyin Ojo, the state Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, said the government had set up a committee, headed by the deputy governor, Dr Kolapo Olusola, to review the verification exercise to ensure transparency.
Alhaji Muhammad Tahir, the Jigawa Head of Civil Service, said that 284 civil servants were found to be collecting double salaries, after an audit using BVN.
He said that the culprits would refund the extra amounts they had collected illegally.
“It is unfortunate that some bad elements are still short-changing the government at a time it is working hard to manage little resources to discharge its responsibilities,” Tahir lamented.
NLC Chairman in the state, Alhaji Usman Ya’u, said the government has installed biometric data capturing machines in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to check ghost workers.
According to him, the state government in 2015, screened its civil servants, but no ghost worker was found.
“So really in Jigawa, we do not have issues of ghost workers like other states do, but biometric data capturing is good.”
The Chairman of NLC in Bauchi State, Mr Hashim Gital, also expressed support for the use of biometric capturing in tracking ghost workers.
He however said that the verification should be done in a manner that civil servants will not go through untold hardship.
In Adamawa, Mr Maurice Vunobolki, the Chairman of the state’s Local Government Staff Verification Committee, said they uncovered 12, 609 ghost names on the payroll of local government councils.
He said more than 5,000 workers failed to show up for verification, while 1,780 among those that turned up, were under-aged.
The Head of Service, Mr Musa Kaibo, also said biometric data capturing was yielding good results, insisting that the administration is determined to weed out ghost workers.
In Gombe State, the Head of Service, Dr Daniel Musa, said with the help of biometric technology government had uncovered some individuals receiving salaries of between 20 and 50 workers.
“The ghost workers syndrome is very disturbing and one of the largest platforms of corruption in Nigeria,” he noted.
According to him, workers are retiring every month, without fresh recruitments, but the wage bill never decreases.
“From the preliminary report we have been receiving, it is very clear that at the end of the day, we will have a lot of ghost workers.
“That is the beauty of biometric data capturing; you will appear in person; come with all your documents and there will be no room for duplication, unlike in the past,” he said.
According to him, if the practice is sustained in the years to come, there will be a clean public service with exact numbers of civil servants, without ghost workers.
He added that currently, there is a drop in the wage bill of the state government as a result of the exercise.
In Borno, some workers described the verification exercise as “outright punishment”, while others said it was a welcome idea, especially in this era of economic down-turn.
Some workers in the state are yet to receive their salaries for five months because of on-going biometric verification being conducted by the state government.
A civil servant, Mr Hassan Imam, said such exercise was necessary to eliminate fraud and save funds.
Another civil servant, Mr Muhammad Goni, said although the aim was to fish out ghost workers, in Borno the real workers were always the victims.
“The job would have been made simple as every worker already has a BVN. The only thing to do is to verify the number and the person operating the account.
“It is my sincere advice that the biometric capturing should be carried out in such a manner that salaries of workers are not delayed,” he said.
The state Chairman of NLC , Mr Titus Abana, said so far nearly 14, 800 out of the 19, 000 workers in the state, had been verified.
In Kebbi, Alhaji Abubakar Nayaya, Chairman, Local Government Service Commission said the verification would identify genuine staff, entrench probity, transparency and accountability.
He said the acceptable procedure for the verification was presentation of both open and secret files of staff, stressing that the files would provide needed information on every worker.
In Bayelsa, Mrs Opukiri Debian, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Head of Service, said “there have been on-going investigations to fish out ghost workers in the state civil service.
“We have gone round the ministries and right now, there are no record of ghost workers in the state.”
Mr Tari Dounana, TUC Chairman in the state, also said “despite all the investigations in the state by the present government, we are yet to see any list of ghost workers.
“There are no such cases in the Bayelsa’s civil service.”
Mr Andrew Owei, a retired teacher, described ghost workers’ syndrome as a threat to the nation’s economy.
Another teacher in Port Harcourt Mrs Tina Okonkwo, called on government to continue with the verification of public servants.
“The civil service has become so corrupt to the extent that most salary earners are not working while those working are not paid well.
“Some people in charge of employment fix names of their relations who are already working in other establishments to enrich themselves the more, while some graduates are roaming about without jobs,’’ she added.
According to her, thousands of ghost workers were fished out in Rivers after the verification.
“We were asked to produce our employment papers, our salaries statement of account and our Bank Verification Number which they used to track so many ghost workers during that exercise.
“Those earning salaries in more than one place were caught and sacked; they are still more in various establishments who are yet to be captured.
“My prayer is that government should not stop at this point,’’ Okonkwo said.
In Enugu State, the government had uncovered 3, 916 ghost workers on the payrolls of local governments after the verification of the workforce in 2016.
A report of the state staff audit panel, which was headed by the Speaker of the state Assembly, Mr Edward Ubosi showed that the government was loosing N161.49 million monthly to payment of ghost workers.
A civil servant, Mr Chidi Iloelulaghi, said that application of bio-metric technology in eliminating the ghost workers syndrome had a lot of benefits to the government and the people.
Iloelulaghi, who is the Clerk to the Committee on Information in the state House of Assembly, noted that it the exercise helps in checking over-bloated workforce in addition to revenue mobilisation.
“It will also go a long way in building a data bank for the government or whoever that might be in need of records tomorrow; while such records would show the numerical strengths and specialty of the work force of the state or organisation,’’ he said.
Mr Sunday Anayo, Branch Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Udi Local Government pointed out that bio-metric technology had helped in identifying manpower shortages and inadequacies.
“After the last NUT bio-metric and verification; it was discovered that there was gross shortage of teachers in the state; which the state government is already doing some recruitment to fill those vacate spaces,’’ he said.
A Computer System Manager, Mr Stephen Okoye, advocates combination of bio-metric capturing and BVN to monitor those fleecing and embezzling public funds.
“Apart from ghost workers; there are workers who collect multiple salaries either from same Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“Good bio-metric exercise based on bank BVN would check elements stealing government or public monies via ghost workers syndrome.
“It will help check those collecting monies of dead colleagues; others who must have left the service and generally check the life-style of civil servants,’’ he said.
Some stakeholders in Abakaliki applauded the biometric initiative, describing the ghost worker syndrome in public service as a canker worm that must be eliminated for the good of all.
Mr Chamberlain Nwele, the Ebonyi Head of Service, said that the exercise was responsible for uncovering thousands of ghost workers in the state workforce.
He noted that before the introduction of the system, the government was paying several millions of naira to non existing workers, adding that leakage has been blocked.
“The biometric data capturing system proved very effective in the control of wasteful spending and elimination of the ghost worker syndrome in public service.
“The system, which is highly scientific and involved the obtaining of vital information about an individual civil servant, contains unique information about you as a person.
“The introduction of the system in the state in 2012 led to the uncovering of thousands of non-existing workers who were paid salaries every month.
“Millions of naira has been saved through the system and I can tell you with certainty that the issue of ghost worker syndrome in Ebonyi is now history, ” Nwele said.
Mr Timothy Odaa, former Commissioner for Finance in Ebonyi State, lauded the biometric policy; noting that government establishments are now free of financial leakages as a result of the ghost workers syndrome .
Odaa, who initiated the policy, said that the existence of ghost workers in the state caused the public service to be overbloated.
“The biometric data capturing and e-payment system are good innovations which have helped government to track ghost workers and have the names of these faceless workers removed from government payroll.
“Of course, we made shocking discovery when we started the implementation of the policy, we discovered that thousands of names in government payroll were non-existent persons.
“Millions of naira were recovered monthly from the exercise and channelled into development of the state and development of the capacity of the workers,” Odaa said.
He urged the present administration to allow for periodic review of the policy to strengthen its relevance.
Chief Hyacinth Ikpo, Chairman, Ebonyi Universal Basic Education Board, said that the exercise had led to the tracking of thousands of non-existing teachers especially in the rural areas.
“The exercise has helped the board to uncover many non-existing teachers who received salaries for job not rendered.
“The board is now saving millions of naira from the money which should have been paid to the faceless and non-existing teachers,’’ Ikpo said.