The Anambra State Local Government Service Commission has uncovered more than 427 ghost workers who have been receiving salaries from the state government without being actual staff members. Vin Ezeaka, the Chairman of the Commission, revealed this information to journalists in Awka, the Anambra state capital, on Friday.
Ezeaka explained that the commission also found that six senior employees in various local government areas had forged their certificates, claiming they were issued by Imo State University.
Out of the 427 ‘ghost workers’ discovered, 59 were deceased employees of the Commission, 40 had retired but were still on the state payroll, and 11 others were living abroad.
The discovery was made during a staff personnel audit aimed at cleaning up the local government system in the state.
Additionally, the commission found 222 workers on the payroll who could not be identified as employees in any of the 21 LGAs. Some of them were living abroad and still receiving salaries. Consequently, the Commission has written to the Joint Account Committee (JAC) to remove these individuals from the payroll.
Addressing the issue, Ezeaka stated, “Some of them have come to voluntarily retire, but we refused because you can’t cheat the government and want to retire. We are going to complete our investigation, and those found engaging in this dishonest behavior will face the full force of the law in accordance with civil service rules.”
Furthermore, Ezeaka mentioned, “Apart from this discovery, we tackled the issue of certificate fraud within the local government system.
We set up a committee which identified individuals with suspicious certificates working in various local government areas of Anambra State.
This led to the establishment of a screening committee that implicated several individuals. Upon investigation, we discovered that six out of 14 individuals who presented Imo State University certificates had fake credentials.”
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