By Henry Boyo
The
Nigerian Public service is reportedly heavily burdened with a ghost population,
who not only unexpectedly write job applications and present themselves for
interviews, but who also open bank accounts and collect salaries, despite their
human shortcomings!
Curiously,
the CBN’s “know your customers” directive to banks was obviously no deterrent
to the establishment of bank accounts for such ghosts! Naira In a strategic
move to forestall detection, these ingenious spirits discreetly also
infiltrated the Nigeria Police Force, where a 2010 staff-audit revealed that
ghost officers accounted for over 100,000 members, out of the officially
registered 330,000 policemen.
The
audit reports further revealed apparent collusion amongst the Police pay
officers, and accountants as well as bank officials to successfully rob the NPF
of over N36bn annually! Similarly, Alhaji Mande Lofa, Chairman of Tureta (LGA),
has also confirmed that a verification exercise carried out in July 2011 by the
Tureta LGA in Sokoto State led to the discovery of over 500 ghost
workers.
Also,
in July 2011, the Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board reported losses
of N2.4bn annually to 1477 ghost workers, while the National Identity
Management Commission, also revealed that, after conducting a biometric data
exercise, it had uncovered 4000 ghost workers out of about 10,300 employees on
its payroll.
Furthermore,
in December 2011, Garba Tagwai, the Niger State Commissioner for Local
Government Affairs also noted that “No fewer than 20000 ghost workers have been
detected on the pay roll of the 25 Local Government Areas of Niger State”. The
Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, also observed that, prior to his
administration, Ekiti State government lost over N3bn annually to
ghost workers out of a projected annual budget of N80bn.
Unfortunately,
the federal government is not immune to such fraudulent revenue leakages;
indeed, in 2001, the incumbent Accountant General of the Federation, Chief
Joseph Naiyeju, reported the discovery of 40,000 ghost workers following a
man-power verification exercise. Similarly, 6000 ghost workers were detected
after the completion of a staff audit, when Mallam Nasir El Rufai was Minister,
of the Federal Capital Territory in 2006; revealingly, the FCT
government was losing about $8m annually, due to ghost workers on its payroll.
