No fewer than 41 workers previously masquerading as staff of Oyo State Government have been weeded out after a verification exercises report carried out by the state government identified them as ghost workers.
The ghost workers were identified in separate reports presented to the government by the Implementation Committee of the 2019/2020 Civil/Public Servants Audit and Payroll Re-engineering/Validation Exercise.
They were from the 602 officers initially indicted and recommended for removal from the payroll by a private firm that was engaged by the Oyo State Government to undertake employees and pensioners’ verification, validation, and payroll re-engineering.
Upon submission of the report by the consultants, the implementation committee affirmed 41 ghost workers, cleared 40 others of any infraction, uncovered 10 deaths, 170 systematic retirements, and affirmed the option of voluntary retirement by 341 others with irregular records of service.
The discovery was confirmed by the State Government and explained that the revelation came after the government began a thorough investigation aimed at blocking all loopholes and eliminate all forms of ghost workers on the government payroll and end an era of fraud across the state civil service.
Through a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor, Taiwo Adisa, in the statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday, noted that the committee examined the report submitted by the consultants and also interacted with the affected officers before finalizing the implementation model.
He said, “Messrs Sally Tilbot Consulting was, in 2019, engaged by the Oyo State Government to undertake employees and pensioners’ verification/validation and payroll re-engineering, tagged 2019/2020 staff audit.
“Following a series of reconciliations, the report of the consultants was received by the government on April 30, 2021, after which an Implementation Committee was put in place to fashion out the final implementation model.
“The 13-member Implementation Committee, headed by Mr. D.O Olatunde, Permanent Secretary, Civil Service Commission, affirmed that 41 officers established to be “No Show” should be removed from government payrolls immediately.”
The statement read in part “The committee recommended that an administrative investigation be undertaken by the government to determine where the salaries of the “No Show” officers had been going.
“From the above, it is observed that from the 602 alleged officers, one hundred and seventy (170) had already retired systematically due to no particular influence of the screening exercise and ten (10) deceased.
“Consequently, the Committee agreed that out of the 602 officers involved in the report: 40 officers should be absolved and allowed to remain on government payrolls; 170 officers who had retired systematically should be allowed on pension payrolls, and 10 deceased officers should be paid their due entitlements.
“It also agreed that: “341 officers that opted for voluntary retirement should be allowed to do so; 41 officers established to be “No Show” should be removed from Government Payrolls immediately; while the list of affected officers from Tertiary Institutions should be forwarded to their respective Governing Councils for necessary action.”
