BVN EXPOSES OVER 20,000 ‘GHOST WORKERS’ ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PAYROLL

The adoption of the Biometric Verification Numbers by the Federal Government in processing salary payment has yielded something astonishing: the discovery of no fewer than 23,306 ghost names on the payroll.

The Nation Newspaper reports that, of 312,306 civil servants, whose bank accounts have so far been checked by a panel set up by the Ministry of Finance, through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform, 23,306 have issues with their accounts.

“Out of the accounts of about 312,000 civil servants processed so far, the ministry was said to have uncovered irregularities in the account of about 23,306 of them, who were suspected to have been collecting double salary.

“These indicted individuals are in two categories. In the first group, we found out that the names of some civil servants, whose salaries are being processed, are different from the names on the accounts where their salaries are paid. What this means is either those in this category are drawing salary from two sources (which could be different agencies), or they are ghost workers,” the source said.

The probe panel was said to have discovered that some of the inactive accounts were domiciled in a particular branch of a bank.

It was learnt that over 300 accounts of some civil servants were opened on the same day and all of them have become dormant.

The Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media Matters, Mr. Festus Akanbi, said last night, “The public will be appropriately briefed when the full report is ready.”

The adoption of the BVN became inevitable due to the failure of the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to effectively deal with the issue of ghost workers in the federal civil service.