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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Abia State Government said it has identified 2,300 ghost workers in its workforce and at the same time saved N220m on monthly wage bill following ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers in the state.
State Accountant General, Njum Onyemenam who disclosed this after meeting with Governor Alex Otti said the huge savings was made using a unified payment system.
She informed the verification exercise was still ongoing and that the government hopes to make more savings when the exercise must have been completed.
“So far, we have been able to save N220m from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.
“Not less than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise,” the Accountant General said.
She confirmed that following Governor Otti’s directive, government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries, left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees.
Onyemenam said local government staff who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, will receive their salaries this week.
