Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria – By Sunny Ojeihomon.
Seventeen ghost workers uncovered by the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System of the Delta State Government’s Biometric Payroll System may soon be jailed.
The alleged fraudsters (name withheld) were discovered through an initiative based on the application of information and communications Technology, designed by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s administration to check fraud in the wages and salaries of civil servants in the state.
Prior to the discovery, the suspects were collecting salaries as staff of the Women Development Committee and the Youth Development Committee Schemes.
Each of them collected about N50, 000 monthly, which translates into over N850, 000 annually from both agencies.
The scam, according to the state Commissioner for Information, Chike Ogeah, was uncovered after the evaluation of AFIS revealed the identical finger prints of the 17 workers in the two agencies.
Ogeah, in a signed statement made available to journalists, said criminal charges may also be preferred against the suspects.
He said his boss “is determined to impose maximum sanction to serve as deterrent to other people involved in fraudulent drawing of salaries from the government”.
According to him, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on ICT and Coordinator of the Biometric Payroll Verification Committee, Harold Monu, said: “The salaries of the affected staff in the two agencies have been stopped.
He added that their details have been passed to the Accountant General’s Office for recovery of monies, while the Secretary to the State Government and the Head of Service have been notified for disciplinary actions to be initiated.
The exercise, which has been a continuous one, has plugged all financial leakages based on the directive of Governor Uduaghan.
