luwarotimi Akeredolu, the governor of Ondo State, has ordered the Head of Service to fire any officers who were found to be receiving double pay from the public coffers.
Akeredolu To Sack Over 2000 Workers Collecting Double Salaries From Ondo’s Payroll
Akeredolu gave the directive on Wednesday while Akeredolu gave the directive while receiving the report of the Committee for Verification, scrutinization, and Clean-up of the State Payroll.
The Governor formed a seven-person team to regularly purge the payroll of transgressions after developing suspicions that the State Payroll, which includes wages and pensions, had been corrupted.
The committee presented its report to the governor on Wednesday at his office in Alagbaka, Akure, under the leadership of Victor Olajorin, a former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance.
When Governor Akeredolu received the reports, he scowled at the various payroll violations found and bemoaned the excessively large workforce, which he claimed was caused by numerous phantom workers.
Additionally, he ordered that until the committee’s task is complete, all Ministries, Departments, and Parastatals in the state must cease all recruitment efforts.
“We have an over-bloated workforce and undoubtedly, I am sure there are many ghost workers,” the governor was quoted as saying in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde.
“Those who are receiving double salaries, apart from recovering the money from them, I am directing the Head of Service to get them dismissed. They must serve as a deterrent to others.”
The committee was praised by Governor Akeredolu for performing admirably and maintaining its integrity.
The committee’s first and most important action, according to Mr. Olajorin, was to get in touch with the various services, including the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Hospitals’ Management Board (HMB), and Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), among others.
He pointed out that in order to fulfill its purpose, the committee also acquired necessary records such as the nominal roll, disposition list, pay register, and pension payroll.
“The documents were consequently scrutinized and in the process, some infractions were discovered,” Olajorin said.
“Mr. Governor, permit me to inform you that our beam light was initially focused on TESCOM and some of the infractions detected were about officers/pensioners receiving both salary/pension, retired officers later reappointed and drawing salary/pension, officers whose salaries are hanging among others.
“Details are contained in the Volume I report of the Committee. In the process, a sum of N304,859,812.51 was discovered as the aggregate loss to the state government from the above infractions.”
“In furtherance of our activities, attention was shifted to the pay register of the Hospital Management Board.
“The committee carried out on-the-spot verification for both medical and non-medical personnel in their various facilities across the state.
“The exercise led to the discovery of some unwholesome practices like abscondment, study leaves without pay, payment of salaries to officers after resignation, while some officers couldn’t be traced to any health facilities.
“So far, a sum of N192,873,592 has been discovered from HMB as the total loss to the state government. Mr. Governor, permit me to mention that the committee has so far identified the sum of N497,733,404 for infractions in TESCOM and HMB.”
The committee’s lopsided observation of the appointment of officers to health facilities in urban regions at the expense of those in ritual areas was another topic of concern, according to the chairman.
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