Enugu recovers N21 Million from ghost teachers

Enugu State Government said it has made another breakthrough in its on-going efforts to rid the state public service of ghost workers.

The State said it has recovered, N21m in the latest exercise from ghost teachers in its Post-Primary School Board(PPSMB) within three months.

Government said it took a hard look at the latest development in this corruption war and mooted a further inquisition that would identify possible members of the syndicate behind the scam.

The State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, toldnewsmen that the chairman of the PPSMB, Barrister Nestor Ezeme, made the disclosure while briefing the State Executive Council in a meeting‎.

Anikwe said the council regretted the fraud which took place at the PPSMB just within three months during which the board embarked on a specialcheck by paying salaries directly to each of its staff who were made to personally collect cheques in respect of their monthly wages.

According to the commissioner, “the chairman of PPSMB has been pleading with EXCO to allow him pay staff salaries by hand and the EXCO approved that he does so, and for the first month after the salary payment, N7
million was left without anybody coming to claim the amount and for three months, N21 million was recovered in the process which means that ghost workers exist at PPSMB”.

He said that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was not pleased with the development, regretting that “ while the state government was striving to fulfil its side of the obligation through regular and prompt payment ofworkers’ salaries, some staff are busy siphoning government money through ghost-workers syndrome.”

The Commissioner stated that the State Government is considering some
severe sanctions against anybody found to been involved in this fraud. In an earlier exercise, the government had discovered no fewer than 2,000 ghost workers in the local government system, including the primary schools.