Ruth Semilore
The Kano Government said it has uncovered anomaly in the payroll system of the state where 240 workers receiving double salary payment while another 217 have same Banks Verification Numbers, BVNs.
This was as it said over 2,000 civil servants who failed to show up for verification exercise had got their salaries stopped for months.
The Secretary to the Kano State Government, SSG, Umar Faruq Ibrahim disclosed this while addressing a joint press conference alongside the Chairman, Standing Payroll Committee, Auwal Sanda and Chairman, Local Government standing committee, Umaru Idi on updates regarding the state payroll system.
Ibrahim, who doubles as the Chairman, State Coordinating Committee, said the state government stopped the salaries of the civil servants for failure to show up for the verification exercise, despite several appeals to them to avail themselves for the exercise.
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The Chairman, Standing Payroll Committee, Auwal Sanda gave the breakdown of the individuals as 1,335 and that their salaries were stopped since September last year while his counterpart, Chairman, Local Government standing committee, Umaru Idi said that another 679 failed to avail themselves for the verification exercise and their salaries were stopped since November.
Sanda further revealed that it also uncovered 240 people having double payment while another 217 have same Banks Verification Numbers, BVNs, noting that the persons will be invited for interrogations.
He added that some of the persons earned from the state and the pension board.
According to him,
“As a result of the verification there are worker who for five to six months were yet to come for verification.
“We have 1,335 workers are yet to come for the verification exercise. So what else did was to raise red flag by putting “do not pay” in front of their names. So money have not be running in their account.
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“We have 240 people having double payment. We will invite the names for interrogation on why their names appears twice.
“There also 217 who have same Banks Verification Numbers, BVNs. People having the same BVN is unusual. We will invite such persons,” Sanda said.
On his part, Chairman, Local Government standing committee, Umaru Idi said it uncovered 247 Ghost workers after which eight appeared before the and the remaining 239 were deleted from the payroll.
“In an effort for the government to stop so many complaints from the workers, this committee decided to introduce a system whereby a voucher would be sent to each local government, primary school management board, that is the LEAs, and the primary health care. There is a standing committee at each local government. This standing committee is suddenly going inside that voucher to trace whether all the people on the payroll are working with that local government or department. Based on the march salary payment voucher or payroll, which we have sent to the local government, a report was received by our committee of this 247 number of staff who were to be maybe retirees, deaths, and elongation staff.
“Out of this 247 staff, only eight people appeared before the committee. These eight people are still workers of Kano State Government. Their amount is 815,363 naira. They are still workers under the Kano State Government. What the committee said is 27,824,395 naira per month. It means if it is two months, you multiply it by two, you get about 55 million naira. This is the essence of this release. This is exactly what the legislative government gave an approval to delete this 239 staff. At the same time, to return this 27 million naira to the joint account of Kano State Government, local government, joint account,” Idi noted.
The Secretary to the Kano State Government, SSG, Umar Faruq Ibrahim, however, described the irregularities as disturbing.
He threatened to invoke the relevant sanctions where there are violations of the laid down rules, noting that whoever is caught will be brought to book.
