Kogi State Auditor-General, Okala Yusuf, has disclosed that the State Government lost N213 billion to 18,211 ghost workers in the past 13 years.

Yusuf made the disclosure on Monday in Lokoja while presenting the report of the just-concluded screening and verification of the state workforce undertaken by the government.

He said 7,606 of the ghost workers were discovered in the work force of local councils, 5,872 were discovered in the state work force while pensioners account for 1,040 of the ghost workers.

The Auditor-General said the exercise had reduced the joint workforce of the state and local governments from 88, 973 to 63,870.

He added that the monthly wage bill had also been reduced from N5.8 billion to N4.6 billion.

He said some workers categorised as being in the Diaspora, who had been collecting their salaries for years while residing in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and other cities across the country were also affected.

He said the committee relied on employees’ bio data verification form and the Nigeria inter-bank payment settlement system to identify the ghost workers.

Yusuf, who served as chairman of the back-up committee that reviewed the report of the screening committee, suggested the adoption of the integrated and automated payroll system to curb leakages.

The A-G also suggested the establishment of pre-disbursement audit unit before payment of salaries.

He said all those who abetted and aided the fraud in the workforce of the state and local governments should be identified and made to face the consequences of their actions.

Speaking after the presentation of the report, Governor Yahaya Bello said the discovery had justified the good intention of the government to embark on the screening and verification.

“Less than two per cent of the population should not be allowed to continue to corner the resources meant for 3.4 million people.

“This is unsustainable; the choice we have is to either reform the service or continue with the distortions in the socio-economic life of our people, “Bello said.

The governor accused previous administrations in the state of abandoning governance, saying that his administration was determined to carry out comprehensive reforms of the civil service.

“This is a way of saying that we are not ready to continue with the past and put permanent stop to the syndrome of ghost workers,” he said.