The Plateau State government says it has uncovered 579 civil servants who have been on government payroll and receiving salaries illegally.
The state commissioner for finance, Tamwakat Weli, made the disclosure on Tuesday at a press conference.
She said that out of the 579 civil servants, 101 persons had been mandated to refund N76.97 million to the government.
“Out of the 579 stated above, 101 persons would make various refunds to government amounting to seventy six million, Nine hundred and sixty seven thousand five hundred and sixty eight naira kobo (76,957,568.96) for over staying in service,” he said.
Mrs. Weli said that the fake civil servants were uncovered by a panel that verified workers’ details.
She said the government needed N4.7 billion to clear salary arrears of civil servants for 2016.
But she noted with joy that the state government recently got N75 billion as its share from the Paris and London clubs debt recently shared to states by the federal government.
“Plateau state government and the 17 local government areas received a total sum of N75 billion as its share from the over deduction on London, Paris clubs debt exit,” she said.
“Of the expected total refunds, only 25 percent of the amount has so far been release to the state in the sum of $37.3 million USD which translates to 10,497,000,000.00 Naira, for both state and the 17 local government areas,” she said.
