Civil Society Network
Against Corruption (CSNAC) is a coalition of over hundred and fifty Anti-
corruption organizations whose primary aim is to constructively combat
corruption vigorously and to ensure the effective monitoring of the various
Anti-graft agencies in the fight against corruption and contribute towards the
enthronement of transparency, accountability, probity, and total commitment in
the fight to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.
In 2007, according to
the Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR), the Integrated Payroll and
Personnel Information System (IPPIS) project, a World Bank–assisted programme
of the Federal Government’s Economic Reforms and Governance Project (ERGP), was
instituted to provide a reliable and comprehensive database for the public
service, facilitate manpower planning, eliminate record and payroll frauds,
facilitate easy storage, update and retrieve personnel records for
administrative and pension processes and facilitate staff remuneration payment
with minimal waste and leakages.
National Mirror
reported on its website on July 03, 2013 that, since the commencement of the
project, successes recorded include the streamlining of payroll and personnel
processes; personnel budget now based on actual as against estimate
projections; prompt deduction and remittance of money to all third party funds,
such as the Pension Fund Administration, National Health Insurance Scheme etc.,
as well as saving funds recovered from the ghost worker syndrome dogging the
nation’s public service.
The news medium further
related that, according to reports, FG for example, made a savings of N4.4
billion in the 2007/2008 fiscal year from the IPPIS project. The said amount
represents the difference between the budgeted personnel cost estimates of just
seven ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and the actual personnel
costs paid during the period under reference. Then, it was allegedly discovered
that, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) harboured about 10,000 ghost workers
on its payroll, while the prostrate Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL)
frittered away N2 billion annually using ghost workers as cover.
Earlier in 2013, in
February 14, 2013, the Punch reported that the former Minister of State for
Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, while briefing journalists on the outcome of the
weekly Federal Executive Council presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan
on the 13th of February, 2013, related that the Federal Government had so far
uncovered 45,000 ghost workers in 215 Ministries, Departments and Agencies
where the finance ministry had already introduced the IPPIS and that about
N100billion was already saved in form of salary bill.
Within 2013 and prior
the exit of the Jonathan administration, about 63,000 ghost workers have
purportedly been uncovered saving the federal government billions of Naira. The
Punch reported on 17th February, 2015 that at a lecture organised by the
Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria, an organ of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of Nigeria with the theme, ‘Preventing leakages in the Nigerian
Economy’, in February 2015, the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating
Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, allegedly stated that, the
Federal Government uncovered 62,892 ghost workers and as a result, the exercise
saved the government over N208.7billion.
However, despite claims
by the previous administration of saving the enormous cash from the scam, the
Jonathan administration failed to punish those behind it. Premium Times on June
29, 2015, while giving a report on the Ahmed Joda transition committee’s
recommendations to President Buhari, stated that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
supposedly claimed that, the case had been transferred to the Independent
Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) alongside names
of indicted officials but the anti-graft body reportedly repeatedly refuted
this.
Let us bear in mind
that the monumental ghost-worker sleaze bug is not only eating the fabrics of
the civil service of the Federal Government alone but virtually all states in
the country are afflicted with this bug. Failure to retrieve criminally
acquired resources and punish perpetrators of this act is capable of embolden
others in devising new criminal means of pilfering state resources.
We hereby request that
your Commission investigate and prosecute the kingpins and field officers
involved in this act of ghost worker scam across the Federal civil service as
reported by the former minister of finance. The ex-minister should be promptly
invited to provide insight into the matter, with information allegedly
forwarded to the ICPC supplied for necessary action.
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