The state’s deputy governor Baba Tela who is the chairman of a high-powered committee set up by Governor Bala Mohammed to find a lasting solution to the challenges of salary payment in the public service says his committee has blocked N763,792,664 million being paid to 7,141 ghost workers and pensioners in both state and local government payrolls.

Baba Tela stated this yesterday when he submitted the report of his committee to Governor Bala Mohammed.

The Baba Tela-led committee was inaugurated By Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed on March 23rd, 2021. The Committee was initially given four weeks to submit its report but it was added timeframe to meet up with its terms of reference.

Tela said in the course of the committee’s assignment, about 865 personnel were spotted and deleted from the salary payroll of the state government costing the state about N615,783,962 million monthly.

He said 113 ghost workers were traced on the payroll of the 20 local government areas who were pocketing N61,013,892 million every month.

Tela said N25,090,155 million paid to 46 illegal state pensioners was blocked, adding that N61,904,654 million which goes to the pockets of 91 local government pensioners was also stopped.

The deputy governor said it took the committee four months against the four weeks that was given to its because it assumed a “task force” like approach.

He said the report which is in three volumes, recommended that sustained efforts be made towards “qualitative analysis” of data the consulting firm hired uploaded into the nominal roll to maintain a clean and credible payroll.

The committee also recommended the deployment of ICT supportive audit tools to provide “executive dashboards” for the governor and chief executive officers of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure ghost workers’ free nominal and payrolls in the state.