The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has identified the Nigeria Police Force and five federal ministries and agencies as having the highest number of suspected ghost workers uncovered during its payroll verification exercise.
According to a BBC Pidgin article from Wednesday, ICPC Chairman Musa Adamu Aliyu (SAN) revealed the findings while speaking about the commission’s investigation into payroll fraud across federal government organisations.
The commission said it uncovered suspected 908 ghost workers in at least 50 ministries, departments, and agencies, reclaiming approximately N942 million in alleged illicit salaries.
The ICPC defines ghost workers as false names introduced into government payrolls to fraudulently obtain salaries.
In some circumstances, authorities are accused of diverting salaries by including family or acquaintances on the payroll despite the fact that they are not employed.
According to Aliyu, detectives discovered one example involving a guy who reportedly placed the identities of his wife, son, and mother-in-law on the payroll while also collecting the salaries of 12 employees.
Among the entities listed, the Nigerian Police Force had the biggest number of suspected fake staff.
“For this operation, we identified 570 people whom we suspect are among the fake workers collecting salaries without working,” the ICPC chairman said about the police data.
The National Water Resources Authority followed with 80 suspected fake workers.
“For this agency, we identified 80 names of people collecting salaries even though they are not workers of the agency,” Aliyu said.
The Federal Ministry of Works recorded 56 suspected fake workers, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had 24.
The Ministry of Defence was found to have 19 suspected ghost workers.
“For the Ministry of Defence, we identified 19 people acting as fake workers,” the ICPC chairman said.
Other affected institutions include the Federal Ministry of Electricity and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, with 17 suspected ghost workers each; the Federal Ministry of Health with 15; and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation with 12.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Interior were also identified as entities affected by payroll fraud; however, the ICPC did not provide the number of suspected bogus workers discovered in either office.
