The Borno State government has unraveled several ghost workers in the system through the ongoing verification exercise in the State.
Kashim Shettima
The Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, has said the state government has uncovered more than 10,000 ghost workers out of the 25,000 civil servants in the its work force.
This will help in freeing up funds for other developmental projects rather than wasting them on corrupt elements in the Boko Haram-stricken state.
The governor, according to the News Agency of Nigeria, made this known in a radio and television broadcast in Maiduguri on Wednesday. He said the workers were uncovered after a verification to determine the actual size of the state’s workforce.
He said, “You may recall that in December 2015, while presenting the 2016 budget at the House of Assembly, I promised to embark on staff verification to determine the actual size of the state civil service.
“We set up a high-powered committee chaired by the Secretary to the State Government to carry out a verification of the state civil service.”
Shettima said the committee verified only 19,763 workers out of the 25,000 workers on the state payroll.
“To finalise the exercise, a consultancy firm was hired for biometric data capture of the workers.
“As of today, 11, 397 workers had been dully captured as being bonafide staff of the state.
“Others – about 7,392 workers have yet to be captured, out of which 4,000 workers have issues with their banks.
“There are also about 3,000 workers who failed to comply with the guidelines on the filling of the verification forms,’’ he said.