Kogi State government has lamented that names of some deceased workers still kept on appearing on the payroll, blaming this on saboteurs within.
The state Head of Service, Mrs Deborah Ogunmola disclosed this in Lokoja during a meeting with Permanent Secretaries and directors in the state civil service.
Ogunmola also cited the case of a woman who retired in 2016 and was recently discovered to be drawing salary and pension at the same time from the state government.
The Head of Service called for increased vigilance on the part of the Permanent Secretaries and directors of administration and finance to safeguard the system from unscrupulous elements.
She directed the Permanent Secretaries and Directors to raise Variation Order to remove names of deceased and retired staff from payroll.
Ogunmola said over 300 ghost workers have again found their way into government’s payroll.
According to her, the ghost workers were mainly workers not cleared during the screening exercise conducted by the state government.
“Some State civil servants were recently dropped from salary in August because they were not cleared in the 2016,” she confirmed.
She appealed to workers to refrain from acts that could undermine efforts being made by the present administration to clean up the payroll and restore the integrity of the civil service.
Ogunmola said that the reform of the civil service carried out by the administration of Gov. Yahaya Bello was the most thorough and result- driven in the history of the state.
She assured workers that have been cleared but yet to be returned to the payroll that they will soon have a cause to smile.
“The report is ready and awaiting approval by the governor,” she said.
On the pay parade conducted in 2018, the Head of Service described it as successful to a large extent but said that more still needed to be done to block some loopholes.
Credit: Kogi Report