Kogi loses N5bn to workers with fake certificates annually

The Kogi State government has said that it loses N5 billion annually as wages to workers who gained employment with fake certificates.

Addressing newsmen on Friday, the Director General on Media and Publicity to the governor of Kogi State, Kingsley Fanwo, said “the endemic corruption in the civil service has taken a toll on the financial health of the state.

“The administrations that carried out such employments are as culpable as the culprits who tendered such forged certificates in order to gain employment into the civil service. These people contributed to the top-heaviness of our civil service and made it difficult to pay salaries to genuine workers over the years.

“The administration of Alhaji Yahaya Bello has been faithful to the workers, owing only a few months salaries. Those recently pardoned of certain offenses will be paid their arrears soon. As for those who have been defrauding the state with forged certificates, government is set to prosecute them,” he said.

Fanwo added that the amount of money lost to workers with fake certificates would have been used in fixing roads across the state, urging the people to partner the government in enthroning probity.

He said the present administration in the state will continue to pursue civil service reforms with “utmost seriousness”.

“It is part of the plans of the present administration to make our civil service work robustly through reforms. We won’t rest on our oars until that is achieved,” he said. On the proposed plan to test teachers in the state, Fanwo said government is not “thinking about retrenching workers but to deploy workers to areas where they can perform.

“This government will not sack teachers who are unable to measure up to basic standards. If they cannot teach, they might be useful in other sectors. Government will not inflict pains on families”, he maintained.