The
Plateau Government has expressed frustration that its efforts to curb
corruption in its public service are being thwarted by workers in the
state.The
Commissioner for Information, Mr Abraham Yiljap, said that among the
corrupt practices found in the system was the discovery of a fake
commissioner in the state service.
Yiljap
said in an interview on Tuesday that the alleged fake commissioner had
been earning the salary and allowances attached to the office.
He described the level of corruption in the state service as ``nauseating''.
``There is
a fake commissioner on the payroll of Plateau state government. I mean
somebody appointed himself as commissioner and has been receiving
salaries and other perks of office as one.
``We have a
lot of bad things. Some people are on grade level 8 but receive
salaries meant for level 16 officers. Others have primary school
certificates and are retiring on grade level 14.
``In another instance, some of the workers connived and stole N66 million scholarship funds.
``There
are many other people, who are taking money that they should not be
taking. Some are no longer in the service but they are maintained in
service. People are maintaining fictitious names and drawing salaries,"
the commissioner said.
The commissioner said it was sad that workers had continued to thwart the government's efforts to cleanse the system.
He said
the workers engaged in all forms of corrupt practices, particularly
through the falsification of names in salary vouchers.
Yiljap said the state had a monthly wage bill of N1.7 billion and described the sum as ``simply incredulous and unacceptable.
``That huge wage bill is taking its toll on our efforts to execute capital projects.
``Some
workers are retiring, some are actually leaving the service totally and
some have died. So, the total number of workers and the wage bill should
actually go down, but it is rising, paradoxically.''
The
commissioner said that the state government had 17,000 workers but it
had compared its wage bill with those of states with 45,000 employees
and found that its wage bill was much higher.
``We have
found out that states with about 45,000 workers pay about N800 million
as monthly salary. The biometric system puts Plateau workers at 17,000
workers yet our wage bill is N1.7 billion," he said.
The commissioner said the government had constituted committees on the issue and carried out biometric data capturing.
He said it was sad that a cartel kept frustrating efforts to cleanse the system.
``We have
tried different measures but when you take one step, they find a way of
frustrating and truncating it and when you take another step, they find
another way of truncating it; this is what we are facing.
``Government
has continued to lose about a billion naira monthly through this
racket. But we will go after them. We will continue to bring in other
measures until we fish out those behind these acts. We must deal with
them appropriately."
He said
the civil service commission had been directed, and was being
strengthened to take actions against those who had been found liable, in
accordance with due process.
``Government
will release the names of those, who have been found guilty in
corrupting the systems. We are compiling the names. As we continue to
investigate, we will expose them so that they will know that we are
serious.
``These
people that went and worked out a fake commissioner, those who stole N66
million scholarship fund and those who are inflating figures and using
fictitious names, we shall soon expose them and deal with them,'' he
declared.
