2,300 Ghost Workers Who Gulped N200m Monthly Unravelled In Abia Civil Service

The Abia State Government says it has saved over N200 million on monthly wage bill following ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers in the state.

State Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam, said the huge savings was made using a unified payment system, Kazie Uko chief press secretary to the governor said in a statement.

Onyemenam, who spoke Monday after a meeting with the state Governor, Dr. Alex Otti said the verification exercise was still ongoing and that the government hopes to make more savings, the statement added.

“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.

“Not less than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise,” the Accountant General said.

She confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries, left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees.

Also, local government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, will receive their salaries this week, Onyemenam said.