EDO, JULY 26, 2016 – Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo has urged the organised Labour to assist the Federal Government in unmasking the perpetrators of ghost workers’ syndrome afflicting the civil service. Oshiomhole made the appeal on Tuesday when he spoke in an interview.
“There is a lot of stealing in the name of workers, which they have cleverly named ghost workers which has been on from one administration to the other, running into stolen funds of over N50 billion.
“I think Labour have to assist government to unmask the fraud that is perpetrated in the name of wages which the political class has continued to cleverly label as ghost workers.
“Ghosts are not visible; whoever can count ghost must know the ghost and prosecute the ghost. Since 1999, ghost workers were being weeded out every day.
“To my knowledge, nobody has being convicted for stealing, or stealing through the payroll system, and it is that fraud in the payroll system.
“You put fake name, worker that does not exist and you collect wages in his name and you do biometrics and you computerise the fraud.
“We devote a lot of resources, paying people who do not work and you call them ghost workers and these are ghosts that you can never find. This is unacceptable and must be stopped.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress must deal with that fraud that is built into that salary administration that is blamed on workers. “
He said that government needed to address the issues as a matter of urgency, saying that with the use of modern technology, ICT, there is no reason why perpetrators should not be caught.
The governor said that the Edo government had recorded success stories on the issue.
“No new name gets into the wage bill without my approval. Originally I will not want to do that, since there are people to do it.
“But when you find that the system is open to abuses, you must find a way to have some control over it.
“If we pay those who actually work, the burden will not be as much as it is.”
He noted that those involved in the act were those in the preparation of wages who think they can turn the salary administration to be their own source of self help.
He said that money stolen in the process is reflected as personnel cost, which was not.
Oshiomhole said that NLC and the Federal Government should work together and any ghost worker that has been established should be persecuted.
