Abia State government has said it has saved N220m following the discovery of 2,300 ghost names on the state payroll.
The amount N220 million was discovered over the ongoing verification of civil servants and other public workers in the state.
State Accountant General, Deaconess Njum Onyemenam, disclosed that the huge discovery and savings were made using a unified payment system.
Onyemenam, who stated this after a meeting with Governor Alex Otti, added that the government hopes to make more savings from the ongoing verification exercise.
According to her,”So far, we have been able to save N220 million from the ongoing verification of workers in the state, local governments and pensioners.
“Not less than 2,300 ghost names have been weeded out of the payrolls, using the unified payment system and we hope to still identify more as we continue with the exercise,” the Accountant General said.
The commissioner further confirmed that following Governor’s directive, government had last week paid the arrears of April salaries, left behind by the immediate past administration and also June pensions to retirees.
“Also, local government staff, who had been skipped when the June salaries were paid, due to their failure to submit their verified payment schedule, will receive their salaries this week.”
