Over 427 "ghost workers" who get wages from the state government without being employees have been found, according to the Anambra State Local Government Service Commission.
Punch reported that this was revealed to newsmen in Awka, the state capital of Anambra, by Vin Ezeaka, the Commission Chairman.
According to Ezeaka, the panel also found evidence of six senior staff in different local government areas forging credentials to represent they were from Imo State University.
He said that out of the 59 ghost workers, 59 were former commission employees who were still paid by the state, 40 were retired but lived overseas, and 11 were commission employees.
In his words, “The discovery was made during a staff personnel audit launched to sanitize the local government system in the state."
"In the process, over 427 workers were discovered to have been on the local government payroll without being staffed."
“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 were staff living abroad whose names were still on the payroll of the government."
He disclosed that the others were some employees of Nwafor Orizu College of Education in Nsugbe and Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka. Additionally, 222 employees were found to be on the payroll, many of whom are still being paid despite living abroad. These employees could not be identified as employees in any of the 21 LGAs.
He further said, “So we wrote to the Joint Account (JAC) 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."
“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.”