At least, 433 ghost workers have been discovered on the payroll of Teaching Service Board (TSB) in Benue State.
The Executive Secretary of TSB, Dr. Frank Kyungun, made disclosure on Wednesday while submitting the report of his screening committee to Governor Samuel Ortom at the Government House in Makurdi.
Kyungun said that the screening exercise uncovered 433 ghost workers on the payroll after verification of 4,473 staff across the three senatorial zones of the state.
He stated further that the exercise uncovered 18 dead persons, 70 retired staff, 193 redeployed staff among other irregularities on the payroll, who were accordingly expunged.
Challenges
The TSB head also identified challenges confronting the board to include lack of utility vehicles and overhead among others as he solicited government’s intervention.
Receiving the report, the State governor immediately constituted a committee to immediately implement the screening report on the actual workforce of the TSB.
Ortom announced that the committee, headed by Commissioner for Education, Professor Dennis Ityavyar, would identify those who had milked the board through ghost workers so that they would be prosecuted, even as he directed that the ghost names be immediately deleted from the payment voucher.
The governor also charged the TSB boss to ensure that the names to be deleted do not find their way back on the payroll.
He listed members of the implementation committee constituted to include a representative of the Head of Service, representatives each from Commissioner for Finance, office of the Accountant General, Attorney General and Commissioner for justice while the Executive Secretary of TSB will serve as secretary of the implementation committee.
