Rabiu Kwankwaso
The Kano State Government on Tuesday disclosed that the ongoing biometrics verification of civil servants in the state had uncovered no fewer than 7, 629 ghost workers.
This development was made known to journalists in Kano by the state’s Head of Service, HoS, Muhammad Na’iya.
Na’iya said the verification exercise was initiated by the government to have in place a robust, integrated and comprehensive human resource and payment data base.
As stated by him, the state government had concluded arrangements to delete the fake names from its payroll as from this month (April).
He said, following the discovery, the state government will save over N283.5 million monthly.
Na’iya said, “In this interim exercise, a total of 86, 373 civil servants have so far been captured out of the over 150, 000 workers that are on the government’s payroll.
“We have given them ample time to appear before the verification committee but they failed to do so.
“This is something we started in February and we are now in April. So we cannot continue to pay workers that are not in existence.
“The committee also discovered 17 newly-recruited workers who had been collecting double salaries, amounting to N1.01 million monthly.
“As soon as the exercise is completed, the state government would compile the total number of such workers with a view to prosecuting them and of course subsequent dismissal from the service.
“After the exercise, all those found to be involved in the shady deal will be prosecuted, in addition to recovering the money”, the HOS stated.
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