Abia state identifies, removes 2,300 ghost workers from state payroll

The Abia State Government claims that after conducting ongoing verification of civil servants and other public employees, which resulted in the removal of over 2,300 ghost workers from the state’s payroll, it has saved over N200 million on the monthly wage bill.

The state Accountant General, Njum Onyemenam, disclosed that the savings were made using a unified payment system, according to a statement released on Monday by Kazie Uko, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Alex Otti.

The verification process is still ongoing, according to Onyemenam, in a statement following a meeting with the state’s governor, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR,

“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, in accordance with Governor Otti’s order, the government had last week paid retirees their June pensions as well as the arrears of April salaries that had been unpaid by the previous administration.

Onyemenam further revealed that local government employees who were not paid their salaries in June following their failure to submit their verified payment schedule will get their salaries this week.