Governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle has said his administration found 199 ghost doctors on the payroll of the state government as part of the process to implement the N30,000 minimum wage.
He said the state government was paying salaries for 280 medical doctors but in actual sense, there are only 81 of them in the state.
The governor made the pronouncement in a chat with newsmen in his residence in Maradun town, the headquarters of Maradun Local Government Area of the state, saying the situation made it difficult to pay their monthly salaries.
He said he had met with the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) officials and other stakeholders on how to trace those 199 ghost doctors.
“I have paid both November and December salaries to all the health workers, but unfortunately, we discovered discrepancies in the way the salaries are being paid,” Matawalle said.
He said the ghost doctors were discovered following the ongoing data capturing of the workforce in the state through the office of the Head of Service as part of his government’s readiness to commence proper implementation of the N30,000 minimum wage to workers.
He assured that no bonafide civil servant would be retrenched over the implementation of the N30, 000 minimum wage.
The governor also said the presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, promised to establish a gold refinery in the state as a measure to end insecurity in the state if elected.