A total of 3, 495 illegal workers have been discovered in
Abia Local Government system, who have been drawing salaries from the
government, the state government has said.
Currently, the State has a staff strength of 17, 895 workers
in its 17 Local Government Councils and a wage bill of over N1.8 billion.
The category of illegal workers included 3, 886 who could
not produce any form of document with which they were employed; 363 workers
whose certificates were confirmed by WAEC as fake; 246 workers who ought to
have retired but who falsified their ages and 180 workers who were
downgraded or properly placed, according to the government.
This was contained in the preliminary report of a 15-member
verification committee headed by the former Speaker of the State House of
Assembly, Mr. Alwell Asiforo which was set up by the government in
December 2015.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy
Affairs, Chief Charles Ogbonnaya explained that the government embarked on the
verification exercise because of the exorbitant wage bill in the system.
According to him, the committee discovered “alarming things”
in the system such as a case of a person being at level 27; he works at the
Amachara General Hospital, Umuahia as level 14 officer and at Umuahia South
Local Government as a level 13 officer and drawing two salaries every month
from the same government.
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