Benue Govt Discovers 2,500 Ghost Workers

At least 2,500 ghost workers have been discovered on the payrolls of Benue State’s Local Government Areas. The state administration also uncovered ghost schools within the state.

Hyacinth Alia, Governor of Benue State, made the announcement in a press statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, and made it accessible to journalists in Makurdi on Thursday.

The governor stated that this was the cause for the delay in paying teachers in primary and secondary schools, as well as local government employees. He stated that the previous administration’s machinations needed to be sanitized and cleaned up.

According to the Benue governor, an examination into local government activities during the previous administration uncovered salary bill padding and payroll fraud.

“The governor says the decision to delay the payment of salaries of the above-mentioned workers was made after the government discovered mindless padding of the wage bill and other fraudulent manipulations on their payroll,” according to the statement.

“He says the decision became necessary after the discovery, to enable the government sanitize and cleanse the payroll; to ascertain the actual wage bill of the state, and to know the genuine workers that are worth their wages.

“He reveals that the first phase of an extensive staff verification and payroll audit for all teachers and local government staff has just been concluded, and it has already uncovered over 2500 ghost workers that have already been removed from the payroll.

“He identifies ghost workers, ghost schools, double dipping, unlawful employment, salary padding, payment to dead or retired individuals, unlawful replacement, and inflation of the wage bill, as some of the payroll infractions discovered from the audit.

“He assures that workers who were successfully screened will receive their salaries before the end of this week, noting that government is not only fishing out ghosts workers and removing the padding associated with payroll fraud but also putting in measures to ensure the systems are protected going forward.”