Borno Govt. saves N500m monthly from 12,000 ghost workers -Shettima

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 Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno on Thursday said biometric exercise had assisted the state government to uncover 12,000 ghost workers on its payroll and save N500 million monthly.

Shettima made this known  at an emergency  meeting with the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC), Mr Titus Abana and  executive members of Nigerian Union of Pensioners at Government House in Maiduguri.

“More than 33,000 workers were on the payroll of Borno State Government for many years, resulting in government having  to pay more than N2.5 billion every month on salaries,”he said.

According to the governor, after the biometric exercise, 20,154 have been identified as genuine workers, adding that 2,000 of the figure are already preparing to retire from service.

National growth LS

The governor explained that savings from the exercise were being deployed to other sectors while  the recruitment of 1,000 teachers and other workers had commenced.

Shettima said with the development, his administration had  lifted the embargo on employment which was in force since the early 90s.

The governor described the biometric exercise as “very complex’’, saying some persons benefiting from  fraudulent activities ‎through pension payments were using different tricks to frustrate the process.

He explained that the committee had also uncovered  some individuals collecting millions as pensions aside from  their salaries.

According to him, more than 9,000 pensioners have already been cleared and enrolled through the biometrics and  now  receiving their  pensions.

He noted that only 500 pensioners had cases with their biometrics, saying that 171 had been cleared by the committee  but the affected pensioners failed to submit bank statements to ensure their enrollment.

The governor  directed   the state’s civil servants biometric verification committee to address the cases of 500 pensioners  pending  before it within two weeks .

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that hundreds  of pensioners in Borno had stormed  the state secretariat to protest the nonpayment of their gratuities and pension arrears since 2016.

The pensioners prevented state government officials from resuming duty  at the secretariat. (NAN)

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