Governor Udom Emmanuel: hoping to eliminate ghosts from payroll

The Akwa Ibom state Government on Saturday said it had commenced the elimination of ghost workers from the State Civil Service.

The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Akan Okon, disclosed this while interacting with newsmen in Uyo.

He said that the government was conducting staff audit to ensure the success of the exercise.

He said that the government was partnering with a Consultant to help it to tie all civil servants on its payroll, to their Bank Verification Number (BVN).

“We are undergoing staff audit; we are also ensuring that every civil servant gets BVN.

“We are tying our payroll system to the BVN and the outcome is certainly going to help to reduce the issue of ghost workers in the state.

“As a state we are working closely with a consultant that is helping us to tie all the civil servants that we pay salaries to, to their BVN.

“I believe at the end of the day it will help us to reduce or eliminate ghost workers in Akwa Ibom civil service,’’ the commissioner said.

The Federal Government has applied the BVN to payroll and discovered over 23,000 phantom workers. Federal Government from January has been saving N2billion naira by weeding out the ghosts, according to Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun.