Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has directed the Head of Service, Pastor John Adeyemo, to dismiss officers receiving double salaries from the payroll.
He also directed Ministries, Departments and Parastatals to stop recruitment under any guise until the Salary Verification Committee concluded its assignment.
The governor gave the directive while receiving report of the Committee for Verification, Scrutinisation and Clean-up of the State Payroll led by a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Victor Olajorin.
He set up the seven-member committee to clean up the payroll of infractions when it was discovered that the state wage bill was on the increase.
Akeredolu, who frowned at the infractions discovered in the payroll, said the over-bloated workforce was occasioned by many ghost workers.
“We have over-bloated workforce, and undoubtedly, I am sure there are many ghost workers. Those who are receiving double salaries, apart from recovering the money from them, I am directing the Head of Service to get them dismissed to act as a deterrent to others.”
Olajorin told the governor that the first and major step taken by the committee was to contact services, including the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Hospitals’ Management Board (HMB), Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), among others.
He said the committee obtained vital documents such as the nominal roll, disposition list, pay register and pension payroll.
Olajorin said the committee discovered that some serving officers were receiving salaries and pensions and retired officers were still in service collecting salaries.
“The documents were consequently scrutinised and in the process, some infractions were discovered.
“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.
“In the process, 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 Hospital Management Board. The committee carried out on-the-spot verification for medical and non-medical personnel in their facilities across the state.
“The exercise led to the discovery of unwholesome practices such as absconding, study leave without pay, payment of salaries to officers after resignation, while some officers couldn’t be traced to any health facility.
“So far, 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 N497,733,404 for infractions at TESCOM and HMB,” he said.
Over 9,000 civil servants were last year screened for alleged age falsification, alteration of documents and employment racketeering.
Some workers, who have travelled abroad, were found to have still been collecting salaries, while others, who were supposed to have retired, were still in service.
A civil servant in the state was arrested last year after he smuggled the name of his wife, a trader, into the state payroll.