3460 non-existing workers uncovered in Benue council areas

460 non-existing workers were uncovered in a just concluded local government staff verification exercise in Benue State.

Chairman of the Benue State Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), Dr Bem Melladu, made the disclosure yesterday in a report of the exercise conducted by the commission and submitted to Governor Samuel Ortom in Makurdi.

Melladu said that the exercise which was carried out between November 4, 2019 and January 14, 2020 aims at verifying the actual number of the local government staff in the unified LG service of the state and the actual staff wage bill.

He explained that a total staff list of 18,426 was submitted to his commission by the council areas, while in the course of the assignment, the team could only verify a total of 14,966 employees in the 23 local government councils, leaving a gap of 3,460 non-existing or ghost workers.

He further stated that the verification equally uncovered names of deceased staff on the payroll, salary padding, redundancy, as well as falsification of retirement dates among other fraudulent practices at the third tier of government in the state.

He added that the commission also established that the total monthly salary for local government staff in the 23 council areas stands at

N865,756,681, excluding that of traditional rulers and LGC members who are expected to come into office in April, 2020. The chairman posited that the exercise would help reduce the huge wage bill of local government areas in the state and make more funds available for projects, and called for prompt action to sanitise the system.