FG Recovers N200b from 50,000 Ghost Workers

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Federal Government has revealed that it has saved about N200 billion by getting rid of about 50,000 ghost workers on its payroll.

This revelation was made by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, during a chat with State House correspondents.

The President’s spokesman noted that the amount N13 billion was taken off the payroll monthly from February to December this year.

He added that 11 persons championing the syndicate of ghost workers have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“The flagship program of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to rid the system of fraud and instil good governance is on course.

“Through a notable initiative, the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the government has embarked on the continuous auditing of the salaries and wages of government departments.

“When the committee was constituted in February 2016, Federal Government monthly salary bill was N151 billion excluding pensions. Now the monthly salary warrant is N138 billion, excluding pensions, which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13 billion. That is from February 2016 to date,” he said.

Mr Garba said further that the “the pension bill was 15.5 billion monthly as at February, but is now N14.4 billion, which means average monthly saving is made of about N1.1 billion.”

He explained that the total number of ghost workers so far removed from the payroll is about 50,000 and that 11 persons championing the syndicate of the ghost workers have been referred to EFCC with some of them already undergoing trial.