The Anambra State Local Government Service Commission has uncovered over 427 ghost workers receiving salaries from the state government without being legitimate employees.
According to PUNCH report, this startling revelation was made by the Chairman of the Commission, Vin Ezeaka, during a press briefing in Awka, the state capital, on Friday.
Ezeaka revealed that the commission's audit discovered that among these ghost workers were 59 individuals who had died long ago, 40 retirees who were still on the payroll, and about 11 employees living abroad. The discovery was part of a staff personnel audit initiated to clean up the local government system in the state.
“The discovery was made during a staff personnel audit launched to sanitise the local government system in the state. In the process, a startling revelation of over 427 workers were discovered to have been on the local government payroll without being staffed,” Ezeaka stated.
He detailed the composition of the ghost workers, saying, “Out of the 427 ghost workers uncovered, 59 were staff of the commission who had died a long time ago, 40 others had retired and are still on the payroll of the commission, while about 11 others are staff living abroad whose names were still on the payroll of government.”
Furthermore, Ezeaka disclosed that the audit found numerous unidentified workers from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe.
"We discovered 59 deceased staff who are still receiving salaries, 40 retirees also receiving salaries, and above all, we discovered 222 workers on the payroll who nobody could identify as workers in any of the 21 LGAs and we have many of them living abroad and still receiving salaries."
"So we wrote to the Joint Account to remove them from the payroll. Some of them have come to voluntarily retire, but we refused because you can’t cheat the government and want to retire,” he said.
The chairman emphasized the commission's commitment to complete the investigation and ensure those involved face legal consequences.
“We are going to finish our investigation and those we caught in this unholy act will face the full wrath of the law in accordance with civil service rules,” Ezeaka affirmed.
In addition to the ghost worker issue, Ezeaka highlighted a crackdown on certificate fraud within the local government system. A committee was set up to verify the authenticity of certificates presented by employees.
“Apart from this discovery, made at the end of May 2024, something dramatic happened, we descended on the certificate racketeering cartel within the local government system.
We set up a committee that came up with reports of people with suspicious certificates working in various local government areas of Anambra State and we then set up a screening committee that indicted so many of them.”
Ezeaka noted that out of 20 individuals who presented certificates from Imo State University, six were found to be fake. He assured that the commission would continue to sanitize the system, ensuring only genuine workers are retained.
The ongoing audit, according to Ezeaka, is not a witch-hunt but a necessary step to cleanse the system and uphold the integrity of the state's workforce. He also mentioned that senior local government staff, including deputy directors and treasurers, were dismissed for possessing forged certificates.
Ezeaka urged those with forged certificates to come forward voluntarily before the amnesty period ends or face dismissal. This initiative is part of the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo's mandate to ensure accountability and transparency in the local government system.