FG removes 50,000 ghost workers from payroll

ABUJA—To rid the public service of corruption, the Federal Government has identified 50,000 ghost workers in a move that saved the country N200 billion.

Government’s action ensured that the N13 billion taken monthly from the payroll between February and December 2016 was saved.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, who disclosed this to State House correspondents in Abuja, yesterday, also said11 persons championing the syndicate of ghost workers have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for prosecution.


He said: “The flagship programme of Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to rid the system of fraud and instil good governance is on course.

‘’Through a notable initiative, the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the government has embarked on the continuous auditing of the salaries and wages of government departments.

“When the the committee was constituted in February 2016, the Federal Government monthly salary bill was N151 billion, excluding pensions.

“Now, the monthly salary warrant is N138 billion, excluding pensions, which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13 billion. That is from February 2016 to date.

“The pension bill was N15.5 billion monthly as at February. Now it is down to N14.4 billion, which means average monthly saving is made of about N1.1 billion.”