Abia State Governor Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, during his meeting with Permanent Secretaries of the various ministries in the state.
2,300 ghost workers in Abia civil service detected – Accountant-General
…Says Govt. saves over N200m monthly
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
Abia State Government has identified approximately 2,300 phantom names on its payroll, resulting in monthly savings of over N200 million, the Accountant-General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam, has revealed.
Onyemenam disclosed in Umuahia on Monday that this achievement was made possible through the ongoing verification process of civil servants and other public workers in the state. She also added that the verification exercise was still in progress and government expects that there would be additional savings in the future.
The Accountant-General disclosed that these significant savings were attained by implementing a unified payment system.
“On the whole, our ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments, and pensioners has led to savings of N220 million thus far. By utilizing the unified payment system, we have successfully eliminated, at least, 2,300 ghost names from the payrolls, and we remain committed to identifying more as the exercise continues,” the Accountant-General stated.
She also confirmed that Governor Otti issued a directive resulting in the clearance of outstanding April salaries left unpaid by the previous administration, additionally that June pensions were disbursed to retirees.
The Accountant-General assured that in line with this commitment, local government staff members who were excluded from the June salary payments due to their failure to submit verified payment schedules would receive their salaries this week.
