Enugu State Government has discovered and weeded out 6,280 ghost workers and pensioners from the nominal rolls of Local Government Areas (LGA) and its Pensions Board.
Part of the discovery was the fallout of the Committee that recently disbursed the first tranche of the Paris Club Refund, which was used to offset all the outstanding salaries and pensions of local government workers and retirees respectively, totaling 3,462 ghost pensioners.
The Committee headed by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Edward Ubosi, had discovered 2,818 ghost workers in the nominal roll of local governments staff.
Briefing journalists after the meeting of the State Executive Council, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, disclosed that the Council “authorized the Commissioner for Local Government Matters, Mr. Chijioke Edeoga, to hand over the verified names as the master list of workers and pensioners to concerned local councils, the Local Government Commission and Pension Board.” Anikwe said the state’s Accountant General, Sir Paschal Okolie, also briefed the Council and announced that “the state has grown its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to 35 per cent of her total revenue.”
He added: “Okolie, who addressed top government functionaries at a mid-year budget review at the weekend, said that the half year revenue receipts of N12.4 billion almost equaled federal statutory allocation of N13.5 billion within the period. He described this as a remarkable achievement on the part of revenue collection agencies in the state for the period, considering that the total IGR receipts for 2016 was N14.2billion.”
According to the Commissioner, “the impact of this performance is already being felt by Enugu State public sector workers who are promptly paid their salaries on the 25th day of each month, as well as pensioners and non-permanent workers who are being promptly paid.”
He noted that
“apart from this, capital projects are being executed across the state in massive proportion as if we are in oil boom.”
