Ghost workers: Benue government saves N1.2b after cleaning payroll

Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia says his administration has saved N1.2 billion following the recent staff verification exercise conducted on civil servants.

The Governor made the disclosure on Friday, during an Extraordinary Stakeholders Meeting of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.

The State government had on Thursday revealed that about 2,500 ghost workers were uncovered across the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

Speaking during the meeting on Friday, the governor stated that after successfully conducting the first phase of the verification exercise, some fraudulent acts were identified and eliminated from the state’s payroll.

“After the first phase of the forensic, for those in the classrooms and the local government, we discovered over 2500 ghost workers and removed them. By this, Government saved the sum of N1.2 billion,” he said.

He said from what used to go to ghost schools and ghost workers which stood at N1.6 billion, Government has brought it down to N800 million.

He further announced that the teachers whose two months salaries were being delayed as a result of the audit have started receiving alerts of their salaries.