The Federal Government has discovered 23,306 ghost workers in the civil servants on its payroll.
It was learnt on Thursday, February 4, that a special team constituted by the Federal Government uncovered cases of multiple salary payments with the active connivance of civil servants and some banks.
They have reportedly been identified and marked down for thorough investigation, it was gathered.
Consequently, the government is said to have embarked on a process of investigating and removing civil servants already identified in the scam from its payroll, although unconfirmed reports also indicated that some of those affected have begun to resign their appointments as a pre-emptive measure against humiliation at the end of the investigation.
Another source said out of the 312,306 civil servants whose bank accounts have so far been checked through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform, “23,306 individuals have issues with their accounts.
“With the adoption of the BVN for salary payment, the Federal Ministry of Finance has so far checked the details of about 312,000 civil servants,” a development said to have led to the discovery of a high level of irregularities in salary payment.
He explained further: “Out of the accounts of about 312,000 civil servants processed so far, the ministry has uncovered irregularities in the account of about 23,306 civil servants. They are suspected to have been collecting double salaries.
“These individuals are in two categories. In the first group, we found out that the names of some civil servants, whose salaries are being processed, are different from the names on the accounts where their salaries are paid. What this means is either those in this category are drawing salary from two sources (which could be different parastatals), or they are ghost workers.”
