About 23,306 names ghost workers have been discovered to be on the payroll of the Federal Government of Nigeria, in a well orchestrated salary payment scam.
The fraudulent discovery was made by a team investigating multiple salary payments in the federal civil service.
Following the adoption of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform for salary payment, the Federal Ministry of Finance has thus far, gone through the account details of about 312,000 civil servants.
Out of that number, 23,306 accounts had serious issues, with some being completely inactive- leading to a conclusion that the ghost workers were on the payroll of the federal government.
While the government has began the process of deleting the indicted civil servants from its payroll, the probe panel has recommended 23,306 civil servants and some banks for thorough investigations.
The Federal Government has also placed some banks under watch for their roles, especially after the discovery that some of the inactive accounts were domiciled in a particular branch of an unnamed bank.
The Nation quotes a source to have said: “Out of the accounts of about 312,000 civil servants processed so far, the ministry was said to have uncovered irregularities in the account of about 23,306 of them, who were suspected to have been collecting double salary.
“These indicted individuals are in two categories. In the first group, we found out that the names of some civil servants, whose salaries are being processed, are different from the names on the accounts where their salaries are paid. What this means is either those in this category are drawing salary from two sources (which could be different agencies), or they are ghost workers,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media Matters, Festus Akanbi, said on Thursday, that the ‘public will be appropriately briefed when the full report is ready.’
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