Zamfara Govt uncovers 200 ghost doctors in payroll

…To sue officials involved in scam

The Zamfara State government on Friday said it has discovered 200 ghost medical doctors from its payroll.

Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Rabi’u Garba, who disclosed this to newsmen in Gusau, noted that the ghost doctors were uncovered during the ongoing civil servants verification exercise under the Zamfara State Hospital Service Management Board (HSMB).

“When the present administration came in, we had 287 medical doctors in the government’s payroll purported to be working in various general hospitals across the state.

“After the investigation, we discovered that only 87 doctors are genuine, all the remaining 200 were non-existent.

“Before now, the state government use to pay N389 million as monthly salary to doctors and other healthcare workers under the board,” Garba said

According to him, with the development, the state government will be saving N120 million monthly from the ghost workers under the board.

“Another serious problem we found in the board was that some workers without health qualifications were receiving health workers salary.

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“We met a report of previous administration that verified non-health workers working in the health sector receiving health workers salary.

“We consider implementing that report because as a responsible government we cannot allow somebody with SSCE or other non-qualifications to be collecting duty call and shift allowances from the government,” he added.

The commissioner added that the government also discovered that some officials of the board and from the Ministry of Finance are also involved in the scam.

“We are directed by Governor Bello Matawalle to carry out investigation exercise to ensure sanity in the state’s civil servants payroll.

“After the investigation, we are going to sue any government official found involved in the scam,” Garba said.