Over 50,000 ghosts have been eliminated from the Federal Government payroll, the Presidency has said.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ver 50,000 ghosts have been eliminated from the Federal Government payroll, the Presidency has said.
Speaking in a chat with State House correspondents on Tuesday in Abuja, Senior Special Assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, said government has saved about N200 billion as a result.
He said about N13 billion was taken off the payroll monthly from February to December this year.
Shehu announced that 11 persons behind the syndicate of ghost workers have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He said: “The flagship programme of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to rid the system of fraud and instil good governance is on course.
“Through a notable initiative, the efficiency unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the government has embarked on the continuous auditing of the salaries and wages of government departments.
“When the committee was constituted in February 2016, Federal Government monthly salary bill was N151 billion excluding pensions. Now, the monthly salary warrant is N138 billion, excluding pensions, which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13 billion. That is from February 2016 to date.”
He also spoke on pension, noting: “The pension bill was 15.5 billion monthly as at February. Now, it is down to N14.4 billion, which means average monthly saving is made of about N1.1 billion.”
The presidential spokesman disclosed that the recently-released 21 Chibok schools girls were being treated as adoptees of the Federal Government but conceded that there was a lot of local and international interest in the future plans of the girls.
According to him, “a black American billionaire, Mr Robert Smith, who is currently sponsoring the education of 24 girls from Chibok, among them the first set of escapees from Boko Haram at the American University of Nigeria, Yola has offered to pay for the education of the 21 released through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free.
“The Murtala Mohammed Foundation in the country is equally interested.”
On the complaints by some of the parents of the 21 Chibok girls that they did not have enough room for interaction with their daughters brought home for Christmas by the Department of State Services (DSS), Shehu admitted that there were some hitches arising from a lack of understanding of the objective of the trip on the part of some security operatives, but that following the receipt of this complaint, a directive has been given from the headquarters for the access by the parents to be eased.
He added: “If the situation persists, please, let us know so that the higher authorities will make a further intercession.”
Also speaking on issues raised by members of All Progressives Congress (APC) concerning appointments into boards, Shehu assured that the process would be fully back on track at the beginning of the New Year.
“You know that the reconstitution began methodically, from sector by sector. You should expect that to resume at the beginning of the New Year. The President has given directions on what to do,” he said.
