*Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State of Nigeria condemns the different infractions discovered in the state payroll, and decries the over-bloated workforce said to have been occasioned by several ghost workers

Isola Moses | 绿帽献妻

Governor (Arakunrin) Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has directed the Head of Service in the South-West state to dismiss officers who are receiving double salaries from the payroll.

Arakunrin Akeredolu gave the directive Wednesday, July 20 while receiving the report of the Committee for Verification, Scrutinisation, and Clean-up of the State Payroll.

绿帽献妻 reports the Governor, who suspected that the state payroll, including salaries and pensions, had been compromised, set up a seven-member committee to continuously clean up the payroll of infractions.

Chaired by Victor Olajorin, former Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Finance, the committee submitted its report to the governor Wednesday in his office in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

Other members of the committee were Tope Popoola, Hadj Badmos, Dr. Ola Obaado, Bola Taiwo, Kayode Edema and Lawrence Akintunde.

Akeredolu, after receiving the reports, condemned the different infractions discovered in the state payroll, and decried the over-bloated workforce which he said was occasioned by many ghost workers.

He then, directed that all Ministries, Departments, and Parastatals in the state should stop recruitment under any guise until the committee has concluded its assignment.

Richard Olatunde, Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Governor, in a statement noted Akeredolu said: 鈥淲e have over-bloated workforce and undoubtedly, I am sure there are many ghost workers.

鈥淭hose who are receiving double salaries, apart from recovering the money from them, I am directing the Head of Service to get them dismissed. They must serve as a deterrent to others.鈥�

The governor also appreciated the committee for doing a good job and not compromising their integrity.

Earlier, Mr. Olajorin had informed the Governor that the first and major step taken by the committee was to contact the various services, including the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Hospitals鈥� Management Board (HMB), and Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), among others.

He stated that the committee also obtained vital documents, such as the nominal roll, disposition list, pay register, and pension payroll to achieve its mandate.

鈥淭he documents were consequently scrutinised and in the process, some infractions were discovered.

鈥淢r Governor, permit me to inform you that our beam light was initially focused on TESCOM and some of the infractions detected were about officers/pensioners receiving both salary/pension, retired officers later reappointed and drawing salary/pension, officers whose salaries are hanging among others,鈥漵aid the ex-Permenant Secretary.

Anoting stated: 鈥淒etails are contained in the Volume I report of the Committee. In the process, a sum of N304,859,812.51 was discovered as the aggregate loss to the state government from the above infractions.

鈥淚n furtherance of our activities, attention was shifted to the pay register of the Hospital Management Board.

The committee carried out on-the-spot verification for both medical and non-medical personnel in their various facilities across the state.鈥�

Anojorin said: 鈥淭he exercise led to the discovery of some unwholesome practices like abscondment, study leaves without pay, payment of salaries to officers after resignation, while some officers couldn鈥檛 be traced to any health facilities.

鈥淪o far, a sum of N192,873,592 has been discovered from HMB as the total loss to the state government. Mr Governor, permit me to mention that the committee has so far identified the sum of N497,733,404 for infractions in TESCOM and HMB.鈥�

The chairman also explained that another issue of concern found by the committee was the lop-sidedness observed in the posting of officers to health facilities in the urban centres to the detriment of the ones in the ritual areas.

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