Abia govt uncovers 2,300 ghost workers, saves N200m

The Abia State government says it has discovered and removed 2,300 ghost workers from the state’s payroll which saved the state over N200 million on the monthly wage bill following an ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers.

This was disclosed in a statement on Monday by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Alex Otti, Kazie Uko, who said the state was able to eliminate the ghost workers as well as the saving which was made using a unified payment system.

The statement commended the state Accountant General, Njum Onyemenam, for the initiative which revealed the ghost workers.

The statement entitled “Abia identifies 2,300 ghost names on payroll, saves over N200 million monthly”, reads:

“The Abia State Government has saved over N200 million on monthly wage bill following ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers in the state.

“State Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam, said the huge savings was made using a unified payment system.

“Onyemenam, who spoke Monday after a meeting with the state Governor, Dr Alex Otti, OFR, said the verification exercise was still ongoing and that the government hopes to make more savings.

“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.

“Not less than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise.

“She confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, the government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries, left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees.

 “Also, local government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, will receive their salaries this week.”