Govt says children of rich people among 18,471 ghost workers‎

A screening committee in the state uncovered the ghost workers on government payroll.

This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Staff Screening Review and Complaints Committee, Mr. Yakubu Okala during the presentation of the final report at the Government House, Lokoja, the state capital.

Okala said the government was losing over N2.6 billion to the ghost workers/unintended beneficiaries.

According to him, a total of 45,128 are genuine workers and pensioners in the state.

"The payrolls were saturated with names of pupils and students. This is a clear breach of the civil service rules," Okala said.

Other anomalies uncovered include abuse of study leaves, incessant promotion of staff, names of dead pensioners on payroll, cases of backdated employments, public servants with excellent results but could not read nor write, impersonation and multiple employments.

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Chief of Staff to the Governor, Edward Onoja, commended members of the verification committee, saying their efforts will help reposition the state civil service.