Yobe State Ministry of local government and Chieftaincy Affairs, said its monthly salary wage bill has dropped by over N400 million.
The figures reduced after staff verification exercise that removed ghost workers from its payroll.
This was disclosed to newsmen on Sunday by the commissioner overseeing the ministry, Alhaji Dawa Mai Gari, in Damaturu.
He said, before conducting the staff verification exercise, five local councils were unable to pay salaries due to shortfall in the statutory allocation.
"We borrow from other local government council’s accounts to augment for the five distressed LGs to pay salaries every month.
“But, after a staff verification committee formed by governor Ibrahim Gaidam concluded its work, many ghost workers were removed and other linkages blocked, they started paying comfortably.
“Now, we save about N400 to N500 million monthly from the LGs payroll", he said.
He said the development had encouraged the state governor to give a standing order for the payment of monthly pension to retired staff, which amounted to N99,885,811.63 last year.
"The administration has also contributed N1,121,827,686 for the payment of gratuity to 2,127 LG retirees; payment of N324 million as 5months promotion arrears to 4,047 teachers and N335.4 million for 756 additional teaching and non-teaching staff on omitted list" he added.
Fielding question on the number of ghost workers so far identified, the commissioner said that a ministerial committee has been set up to verify the verification committee’s report for the final outcome.
"We would make that public after we receive the final outcome of the excercise", he assured.
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