Kogi loses N700m to ghost workers monthly-Commissioner

IT has been discovered that the Kogi State government loses aboutN700 million to ghost workers every month.
The state Commissioner of Information, Science and Technology, as well as Special Duties, Professor Aaron Baba, disclosed this while hosting members of theNigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Correspondent Chapel in his office.
He said the state government decided to conduct the screening, because it had discovered that the staff salary that had been fluctuating between N1.2 billion and N1.3 billion, jumped to N2 billion, before deciding on salary relativity.
“At the end of the exercise, we discovered that we have staff strength of about 27,000. Out of this number, over 4,000 staffers were employed since 2004 till date without government’s approval.
“Some were ghost workers, while others were fraudulently employed and receiving salary that was not commensurate with their levels and qualifications.
“So if we have to continue like that, we would end up paying over N3 billion as salary,” he said.