Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the governor of Ondo State, has instructed the Head of Service to fire any officers who are collecting double salaries from the public coffers.
He issued the directive, on Wednesday, July 20, while reviewing the Committee for Verification, Scrutinization, and Clean-up of the State Payroll’s report,
Akeredolu formed a seven-person committee to regularly purge the state payroll of irregularities because he thought that it had been compromised and that this included salaries and pensions.
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The team, which was led by Victor Olajorin, a former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance, handed the governor their findings on Wednesday at his office in Alagbaka, Akure.
Receiving the reports, Governor Akeredolu frowned at the different infractions discovered in the payroll and decried the over-bloated workforce which he said was occasioned by many ghost workers.
He also directed that all Ministries, Departments, and Parastatals in the state should stop recruitment under any guise until the committee has concluded its assignment.
The governor was quoted as saying in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde;
We have an 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. They must serve as a deterrent to others.
Akeredolu Charges Committee To Ensure Mandate
The committee was praised by Governor Akeredolu for performing admirably and maintaining its integrity.
The committee’s first and most important action, according to Mr. Olajorin, was to get in touch with the various services, including the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM), Hospitals’ Management Board (HMB), and Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), among others.
He pointed out that in order to fulfil its purpose, the committee also acquired necessary records such as the nominal roll, disposition list, pay register, and pension payroll.
Olajorin noted;
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.
Details are contained in the Volume I report of the Committee. In the process, a sum of 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 the Hospital Management Board. The committee carried out on-the-spot verification for both medical and non-medical personnel in their various facilities across the state.
The exercise led to the discovery of some unwholesome practices like abscondment, study leaves without pay, payment of salaries to officers after resignation, while some officers couldn’t be traced to any health facilities.
So far, a sum of 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 the sum of N497,733,404 for infractions in TESCOM and HMB.
