The Abia State Government said it has discovered 2,300 ghosts in its payroll system and weeded them out, thus saving over N220 million on monthly wage bill.
The state said the ghost workers were detected following ongoing verification of civil servants in the state.
At meeting on Monday with the state Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, in Umuahia, the state capital, the state Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam said that the verification exercise was still ongoing.
“So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.
“Not less than 2,300 ghost workers have been weeded out from the payroll, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise”, she said.
Onyemenam confirmed and reiterated the governor’s directive last week that workers would be paid the arrears of April salaries left behind by the immediate-past administration as well as June pensions to retirees.
