Benue State Government has uncovered 3,460 ghost workers on the payroll of the 23 local governments in the state.
Chairman of the state Local Government Service Commission, Bem Melladu disclosed this on Monday when he presented the Commission’s report to Governor Samuel Ortom at the Benue Peoples (Government) House, Makurdi.
Mr. Melladu said out of a total of 18, 426 employees, only 14, 966 turned up for verification.
According to him, the verification also uncovered names of deceased staff that were still on the payroll, salary padding, redundancy as well as falsification of retirement dates among other fraudulent practices at the third tier of government in the state.
Melladu, who expressed happiness that the exercise would help reduce the huge wage bill of local governments in the state and make more funds available for projects, recommended prompt action to sanitize the system.
Receiving the report, Gov. Ortom gave assurance that the State Executive Council would deliberate on the Local Government Service Commission’s report in its next meeting.
The Governor lamented the decay in the local government system, pointing out that his administration would take proactive measures to plug the leakages and reposition the local governments.
He commended the courage and commitment of the Commission’s Chairman and his team to the assignment.
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Recall that the new Local Government Service Commission was inaugurated by Gov. Ortom on September 17, 2019, with a charge to verify the actual number of Local Government Staff in the Unified Local Government Service of Benue State and come out with the actual wage bill for Local Government Staff.
During the course of the work, the Commission also uncovered that even though Local Government Councils present a huge number of staff, very few of them actually go to work on a regular basis, a situation that has crippled the efficiency of Local Government System in the State generally.
The report also states that “the Commission noticed manipulation of retirement dates of some Local Government staff. In some cases, officers that were supposed to retire from service about a year ago are still in the service.
“We came across a number of absentee staff. These are staff living elsewhere but drawing salaries from Local Governments where they claim to be working. During the staff verification exercise, we identified and confronted some of them and they even admitted it.
The Commission also discovered that names of deceased staff are being retained on Local Government payroll under the pretext that gratuity is never paid in time.
“We also came across cases of staff with prolonged illnesses who are unable to go to work. According to Civil Service Rules, their cases can only be determined by a competent medical board to examine them.”
The Chairman of the Commission therefore, urged the Governor to allow them collaborate with relevant bodies to constitute a medical board to look into such cases.
