The Presidency has revealed that members of a syndicate responsible for the presence of 50,000 ghost workers on the Federal Government’s payroll had been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission this year.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists.
Shehu said some of the suspects were already undergoing trial.
He explained that the Efficiency Unit of the Ministry of Finance created by the present administration was able to uncover the 50,000 ghost workers and saved the nation of N13bn monthly during the year.
He said the amount was taken off the government’s payroll from February to December.
The presidential spokesman said, “The flagship programme of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to rid the system of fraud and instill 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’s monthly salary bill was N151bn excluding pensions.
“Now, the monthly salary warrant is N138bn, excluding pensions. Which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13bn. That is from February 2016 to date.”
Shehu added that the pension bill which was N15.5bn monthly as of February has now been reduced to N14.4bn.