Paul Omokuvie Bauchi
At least, 596 dead civil servants have been discovered to be drawing salaries and allowances from the Bauchi State government.
The discovery was announced by a verification committee set up to ascertain the number of civil servants in the state in order to determine the actual amount payable as salaries and allowances by government on monthly basis.
Chairman of the committee, Adamu Ibrahim Gumba, stated this during a press briefing, yesterday.
He expressed hope that whatever amount is saved from the exercise would be used to improve the welfare of civil servants. Gumba said the committee took about three months to undertake the assignment and that 4,578 people abdicated to appear before the committee to be verified.
Gumba said 24,736 people, made up of state, local government workers and pensioners, had been verified and cleared by the committee and were receiving salaries and allowances.
On those who abdicated to appear before the committee, Adamu Gumba said: “maybe they will have another chance to be verified by the implementation committee to be set up. But to me, they are suspects, and everything must be done to identify them.”
“If we can uncover ghost workers from the 30,226 verified, how much more will be discovered if the entire number were verified,” he said.
He assured that all those verified and clear by the committee, but have not received their salaries and allowances in the last three months would be paid without delay. He said Governor Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir had approved the immediate payment of arrears of workers salaries.
He said that in a no distant future, the embargo placed on the recruitment of new staff would be lifted to allow the recruitment of professionals to replace retirees.
“Most MDAs are lacking professionals in service,” he said.
Governor Abdulkadir had inaugurated the committee to verify the BVN of civil servants following allegations of lots of ghost workers in public service.