FG discovers 1,500 ghost workers In civil service  

The Federal Government in Abuja disclosed the discovery of over 1,500 ghost workers who submitted fake employment letters to the verification committee.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, at the ‘National Policy Dialogue on Entrenching Transparency in Public Office Recruitment in Nigeria’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission in Abuja, emphasised that the Federal Government has suspended the salary of 3,000 civil servants who failed to present themselves for verification. Those who avoided the verification exercise might have increased the numbers of ghost workers in the federal civil service.

Folashade Yemi-Esan explained that the verification exercise is to eliminate illegal recruitment of ghost workers in the federal government agencies.

The Head Service highlighted: “Sometimes in March of 2021, this office informed the ICPC that there were quite a number of fake letters of appointments circulating in the ministries.

“At that particular time, we discovered that in just one ministry alone, there were over a thousand individuals bearing fake letters of appointments. And they were already enrolled on the payroll.

“The Office of the Head of Service received another report, this time from the Federal Civil Service Commission itself, forwarding names of over 500 persons in various MDAs that possess fake letters of appointments.”