FG Uncovers Potential 11,000 Ghost Workers

This was announced by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, during a chat with State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Recall that the Federal Government had few weeks ago, deleted 23,000 ghost workers from its payroll, saving the nation N2.29bn per month.

Adeosun said her ministry was using what she called computer techniques to investigate the potential 11,000 cases, adding that as soon as the cases were resolved, Nigerians would be duly informed.

Adeosun said, “On the issue of the ghost workers, of the 23,000 that we had removed, our payroll has reduced by N2.29bn per month.

“The update on that is that we are now investigating another potential 11,000.

“Again, we are using computer techniques to identify those who we need to investigate.

“So we are now looking at the second batch and as we resolve those cases, we will inform you of the amount saved and the number of people removed.”

The minister added that the FEC had approved the continuous audit of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

“The FEC deliberated extensively on the need for this and agreed that the control framework over finance and spending of government’s money needed to be strengthened especially in anticipation of the approval of the budget, which is an extended expenditure.

“If we don’t strengthen our controls, then there is a risk that money would leak or be applied to the wrong things and therefore, the ability to go into various agencies without notice and check and do audits and updates to make sure that public money is being spent in accordance with our expectations and objectives.

“FEC approved the setting up of this initiative effectively using an executive order to create internal audit to enable us to continue this work and to extend it to everywhere that federal money is being spent or received so that we can have better oversight,” she said.