Head of Service: 71,000 ghost workers gulp N28bn annually

Head of Service of the Federation Alhaji Isa Bello Sali yesterday said the Federal Government has uncovered 71, 135 ghost workers on its payroll.Speaking during a meeting with members of the House of Representatives Committee on Pensions, Sali said the discovery also helped the government save N28bn annually which was being paid to ghost pensioners.'As a result of the first biometrics exercise, a total of about 44,320 pensioners who had never received pension in their lives have now been verified and their biometrics captured, some had been retired for over 35 years and the total monthly pension being paid to this category of pensioners stands at approximately N336 million,' Sali disclosed.He said the newly enrolled pensioners, along with the older ones, are entitled to many years of unpaid pension arrears, 'aside from the 6 percent and 15 percent pension increase provided for, the Task Team has been able to compute the total entitlements and they are paid in batches since January 2011.'Sali said the task force observed that prior to the exercise, under-aged persons were paid pension, many names and account numbers were duplicated, while many pensioners provided falsified documents for verification.Committee chair Rep Ibrahim Bawa Kamba (PDP, Kebbi) said the lawmakers were worried about of the issue of fraud in the pension office especially on the issue of N5 billion scam involving some directors of pensions in the office of the Head of Service.
Click here to read full news..