The state government discovers various sharp practices in its civil service
The Plateau Government has expressed frustration that its efforts to curb corruption in its public service are being thwarted by workers in the state.
The state’s Commissioner for Information, Abraham Yiljap, said that among the corrupt practices found in the system was the discovery of a fictitious commissioner in the payroll of the state.
“I mean somebody appointed himself as commissioner and has been receiving salaries and other perks of office as one,” he said. “We have a lot of bad things. Some people are on grade level 8 but receive salaries meant for level 16 officers. Others have primary school certificates and are retiring on grade level 14.
In another instance, some of the workers connived and stole N66 million scholarship funds. There are many other people who are taking money that they should not be taking. Some are no longer in the service but they are maintained in service. People are maintaining fictitious names and drawing salaries.”
Yiljap said the state had a monthly wage bill of N1.7 billion and described the sum as “simply incredulous and unacceptable”. “That huge wage bill is taking its toll on our efforts to execute capital projects,” he said.
“We have found out that states with about 45,000 workers pay about N800 million as monthly salary. The biometric system puts Plateau workers at 17,000 workers yet our wage bill is N1.7 billion.”
