Gombe discovers 668 ‘ghost workers’

The Gombe State Government said it had suspended 668 workers on its payroll for failing to show up for the biometrics verification exercise conducted for civil servants in the state.

The Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development in the state, Muhammad Gambo Magaji, disclosed this to newsmen at the commencement of the implementation of the biometrics verification exercise.

According to him, N38.3million was saved following the suspension of the ‘ghost workers.’

The commissioner explained that the biometrics had been piloted in Akko and Gombe local government areas, as well as Local Education Authority (LEA) in the respective local government areas.

He said, “In Gombe Local Government Area, a total of 103 staff didn’t show up for the biometrics, comprising 44 local government staff and 59 LEA staff, while in Akko, 134 workers comprising 83 local government staff and 51 LEA staff were affected and had been taken out of the payroll.”

He added that the exercise would continue until the remaining nine local government areas are captured to ensure that all workers in the state are effectively covered.