–Finance minister
By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi
Three months after the Federal Government discovered 34,000 ghost workers on its payroll, N6.6 billion has been saved by the Efficiency Unit (E-Unit).
Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun said President Muhammadu Buhari approved the unit in November 2015 and has been instrumental in saving N6.6 billion.
She said this on a programme on Channels Television, Sunrise Daily, yesterday, while giving a brief on the activities of the E-Unit.
“On salaries, we’ve cleaned our payroll. As at last week, we had reduced our payroll amount by N6.6 billion between when I started work in November and today.”
Adeosun told Nigerians to expect more civil servants protests, saying that the workers were reacting to government’s unpopular decisions.
She restated government’s commitment to cutting cost of running the affairs of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
“By the nature of the job at the moment, I am cutting cost, I am taking people off the payroll (and) I am reviewing projects.”
The Finance Minister added that the implementation of the policy was across board (at both lower and higher cadre of the public sector), but affirmed it would be unfair if it affects junior workers only.
In March, Adeosun blew open 23,000 ghost workers on the payroll. She said in the aftermath of deploying the Bank Verification Number (BVN), 23,000 ghost workers were discovered, saving the Federal Government N2.29 billion per month.
Less than three weeks after that, another 11, 000 ghost workers were also discovered on the payroll.
The 23,000 ghost workers were run by a three-ring syndicate of top civil servants in federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), bankers and some “big people outside the federal civil service.”
Some of the civil servants implicated in perpetrating the fraud of the initial 23,000 ghost workers were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Some of them reported at the anti-graft agency’s office in Abuja and explained their roles in the scam.