Zamfara sacks 7,000 ghost workers

The work-force of the Zamfara Government has been pruned to 21,067 following Governor Abdulaziz’s directive that 7,000 unidentified names be deleted from government’s payroll, with effect from July.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that prior to the verification committee’s interim report, Zamfara had 28,183 on its payroll.
The directive is contained in a circular dated July 27, and issued by the state Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Muazu Nalado.
The commissioner quoted the governor as having said that the July salaries be paid to only workers, who were duly verified as contained in the interim report.
NAN reports that the verification committee last week uncovered more than 7,000 workers, including more than half of government house personnel as ‘ghost workers‘.
In a circular dated July 27, Nalado said that Yari had directed that payment of July salary would be predicated on the outcome of the verification committee’s work.
The circular entitled: “July 2012 salary”, had been sent to the offices of the Principal Private Secretary to the Governor, Secretary to the Government, Head of Service, and other relevant government organs for compliance.
The verification committee, however, ordered those workers not captured during the verification to come forward with their complaints.
Scores of workers who missed the exercise were seen at the secretariat on Wednesday scampering to sort out themselves.