The federal government says it has recovered N160 billion in salaries after clearing out 60,000 ghost workers from the service using the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System, IPPS.
The minister of Finance and supervising minister of the economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala made this known at the ministry’s annual ministerial press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday.
Okonjo – Iweala said that the ministry would send the names of those suspected in salary scam to the Independent Corruption and Practices Commission, ICPC, for necessary action to be taken against them.
She revealed that 50, 000 ghost workers were found in 2013, adding that in 2014, 10,000 had also been discovered.
“Now many people will ask who are those responsible for these ghost workers? Because the ministry of finance is not an investigating agency, we have gathered all our facts and submitted them to ICPC to trace them and bring them to justice,” she said.
“We are willing to continue to work with ICPC to give them any information they need in order to clean up the system”. Iweala added.
She said that the government will not rest until transparency and accountability are brought into the management of public funds.
“It is an overwhelming problem sometimes, but we will not relent because if we say we will relent, who will fight it for us”. She said.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Jonah Otunla, in his own remark said the Office of the Account-General of the Federation was also using the Government Integrated Financial Management, GIFMIS, which he said is an IT-based system for budget management and implementation, to ensure effective implementation of rederal government budget.