ABOUT 2,300 ghost workers have been discovered in the payroll of the Abia State Government.
The detection of the ghost workers in the course of an ongoing verification of civil servants has saved the state N220 million from its monthly wage bill, according to the Abia State Accountant General, Njum Onyemenam.
Onyemenam disclosed this in Umuahia, the state capital, on Monday, July 17.
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“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners,” he said.
He added that, so far, 2,300 ghost workers have been removed from the system following the introduction of the unified payment system.
Onyemenam noted that more ghost workers would be uncovered in the course of the verification exercise.
The Accountant-General further disclosed that the state governor, Alex Otti, has given a directive for payment of backlog of salaries to local government workers, well as arrears of April wages to civil servants.
He added that the governor has authorised payment of June pensions to retirees.
The ICIR reported in February that the administration of the immediate past governor of the state, Okezie Ikpeazu, owed medical doctors 26-month salaries.
The ICIR highlighted that medical doctors employed by the Abia State government faced severe financial difficulties due to irregular payment of salaries.
The report noted that Ikpeazu, upon resuming office in 2015, met seven months withheld salary by the previous administration but also accumulated another four months debt, making it 11 months salary arrears during his first year.
Although the state was able to clear the eleven months owed salary in tranches through the intervention of former President Muhammad Buhari; the Ikpeazu administration kept accumulating more months of unpaid salaries.
The ICIR, also, confirmed that the residents’ doctors were owed 25 months’ salaries, Hospital Management Board (HMB) staff members are owed about 14 months and other cadres of doctors in the state have their 26-month salary arrears unpaid.
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