It has been revealed that even people who had died already are still on the payroll of Benue State government.
Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom
Benue State government, yesterday, said it had uncovered payroll fraud where dead and retired civil servants were being used to fraudulently draw salaries, Vanguard reports.
The Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Benson Abounu, who made this known at the commencement of the modified stable payment of salaries and screening of civil servants in the state, lamented that salary padding had also constituted a huge drain on the finances of the government.
Abounu said: “We did a mock screening of civil servants and discovered that of the 10 employees we screened, three of them ought to have been retired but are still in service receiving salaries.
“We also discovered that at the Ministry of Heath, administrative and clerical officers who are not entitled to night and shift allowances, are receiving such allowances.”
The Deputy Governor, who heads the screening committee, stated that the exercise which will cover the supposed 19,000 employees of state civil service and 25,000 local government workers will completely eliminate ghost workers in the system.