INFORMATION ENUGU

By Emeka Mamah
Enugu—A local government audit panel set up by the Enugu State government has discovered nearly 4,000 ghost workers in the 17 local government councils.
Ugwuanyi The panel which submitted its report to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi stated that 3,916 workers whose names were in the payment vouchers could not be traced, adding that this would save the state about N161, 494, 570 monthly or N1.938 billion annually.
The Chairman of the panel and Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Edward Ubosi, who presented the report, said that the money would be the difference in the wage bill now that the exercise had been completed.
Ubosi said: “From the above, N64, 882, 033 and N96, 612, 337.20 from local government staff gross salaries and teachers’ salaries respectively should be regarded as monthly savings.”
Ugwuanyi, who received the report, commended the panel for a job well done, saying that the report would go a long way in helping the state government in the on-going efforts to track down ghost workers in the state public service.
The committee made a total of 26 recommendations for consideration by the government among which is the removal of all staff in the system found out to have falsified their ages; impersonators, those in-capacitated by ill-health as well as those employed contrary to civil service rules.
It also recommended that more teachers be engaged in the primary schools in the state.
The committee also suggested general posting of local government staff after a bio-metric capturing exercise to ensure discipline in the system.