No fewer than 240 Kano State workers are receiving double payments while 217 others are operating under the same Bank Verification Number, BVN, the state government disclosed on Sunday.
Dr Sulaiman Wali Sani, the Special Adviser to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf on Civil Service Matters and Chairman of the State Coordinating Committee made the disclosure while addressing newsmen in Kano.
Sani, who spoke on behalf of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG at the press conference, stated that the discovery followed a biometric verification exercise and the efforts of two standing committees.
He said one of the committees is on state payroll while the other one is on local government payroll.
According to him, the shocking discovery by the government was part of ongoing efforts to sanitise the state’s civil service and fulfill campaign promise of the current administration.
“Inherited shortcomings in the payroll system have continued to disturb the government.
“We discovered that 240 employees are drawing double salaries while 217 individuals are operating under the same BVN, suggesting possible cases of ghost workers or identity manipulation,” Sani said.
He added that a total of 1,335 workers also failed to appear for verification for after more than six months of announcemet.
Sani noted that their failure to show up for the verification is raising further concerns about the authenticity of many names that have been on the government’s payroll.
In his remarks, Alhaji Umar Idi, Chairman of the Local Government Standing Committee, revealed that a recent audit uncovered 247 questionable names on local government and primary healthcare payrolls, including retirees, deceased persons, and cases of unauthorised staff elongation.
“Out of these 247 workers, only eight appeared before the committee to confirm their employment status.
“The remaining 239 names have been flagged for deletion, saving the government a total of N27,824,395 monthly,” he explained.
