Chairman of the Borno council staff verification committee (BSVC), Kaka Mallam Yale, has said that N2.844 billion is being saved annually from 14,752 ghost workers. According to him, after the six-week verification exercise, the wage bill of 27 councils dropped from N1.1 billion to N965 million. While presenting the committee’s report Thursday in Maiduguri to Governor Babagana Zulum, he disclosed that the state government is now saving a monthly wage bill of N237 million from council ghost workers. “This leaves a difference of N237 million per month and for the whole year, it will amount to N2.8 billion,” he said. He explained that out of 71,558 staff submitted for verification; only 63,291 presented themselves for the exercise out of which 56,806 were cleared for biometric capture. According to him, their biometric capture, is yet to be conducted by the committee. Continued; “Apart from those who did not show up for the physical verification exercise, the committee also found staff who were either over-aged or overstayed. He noted that this is however; contrary to the provisions of the civil service rules. He added that other categories of ghost workers; were those with fake certificates and bank statements. He therefore recommended the setting up of a new committee to conduct the pending biometric data capture of cleared workers. Zulum lauded the committee for a job well done but lamented that the committee failed to proffer solutions to some of the key issues it raised in the report. “The committee only pointed out illegal recruitment of staff, while appointment letters were shared to stakeholders who in turn distributed them to relatives, friends and allies,” he noted. He said that the committee was, however, silent on what needed to be done about the illegal employment. Continued; he added: “Salary grades were arbitrarily fixed without regards to specialisation. “According to your report, a total of 42,059 staff fell into this category with over N602 million being paid to them as salaries but the committee is silent on its recommendation on how this anomaly could be rectified.”
