Only civil servants with confirmed Bank Verification Numbers, BVN, will henceforth receive salaries in Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike has announced.
Nyesom Wike
He said the move would allow the government determine the actual number of staff employed by the state.
Speaking at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Thursday, when the governing council of the Rivers State Science and Technology visited him, Mr. Wike said the monthly wage bill of the state government stood at N7 billion while monthly pension bill stood at N1.4 billion.
“This month, if you don’t submit your BVN and physically identify yourself, you will not be paid. If only 20 staff have their BVN verified physically, they will be the only staff to be paid,” the governor said, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Simeon Nwakaudu.
“With a wage and pension bill of N8.4billion monthly, the State Government is determined to stop all wastages.”
Mr. Wike also announced that the state government would no longer pay the salaries of primary and secondary school teachers of Demonstration Schools of the state university, RSUST, and other designated tertiary institutions where pupils and students pay school fees.
He said the state government had completed the payment of salary arrears of recalled lecturers sacked by the immediate past administration.
Also, Governor Wike approved the setting up of a College of Medicine and a Teaching Hospital at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology.
He said the government would support the establishment of the College of Medicine and Teaching Hospital for the RSUST as part of the pledge he made to the people of the state.
Earlier, the Pro-Chancellor of the RSUST, Iche Ndu, commended Mr. Wike for investing in the development of the university through development projects and programmes.
The Federal Government is concluding plans to probe no fewer than 23,306 federal civil servants, who have been accused by a panel of defrauding the government of millions of naira every month through an organised salary fraud.
General Buhari
The preliminary report of an investigative committee, set up to probe the alleged fraudulent payment of salaries to either ‘ghost’ workers or payments to multiple accounts, indicated that some banks would also be called to answer questions on the huge scam.
In a branch of one of the banks, over 300 accounts were said to have been opened in one day and all the accounts have become inactive.
A competent source on the investigative panel, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, said the federal civil servants and the banks, which had allegedly been indicted, had been marked down for thorough investigations and possible sanctions.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government had begun a plan to investigate and remove the names of the indicted civil servants from its payroll.
It was also learnt that some of the affected officers had started resigning their appointments as a pre-emptive measure to avert humiliation and sanctions at the end of the investigation.
Our correspondent gathered that out of 312,000 civil servants, whose bank accounts had been checked so far in the exercise through the Bank Verification Number platform, the accounts of 23,306 workers had questionable transactions.
The exercise was said to have led to the discovery of a high level of irregularities in salary payment.
The source told The PUNCH, “Out of the accounts of about 312,000 civil servants processed so far, the ministry has uncovered irregularities in about 23,306 of them. The account holders are suspected to have been collecting double salaries.
“These indicted individuals are in two categories. In the first group, we found out that the names of some civil servants, whose salaries are being processed, are different from the names on the accounts where their salaries are paid into. What this means is either those in this category are drawing salaries from two sources (which could be different parastatals), or they are ‘ghost’ workers.”
It was gathered that the panel also discovered that salaries were being paid into some inactive accounts, which had fuelled the belief that the Federal Government had been paying salaries to ‘ghost’ workers.
The source added that the Federal Government had placed some banks under watch over their roles in the unfolding salary scam.
It was learnt that the panel had discovered that some of these inactive accounts were domiciled in a particular branch of a bank.
“The investigating committee discovered that in a particular branch of a bank, over 300 accounts of some civil servants were opened on the same day and all of them have become dormant.
“By the time the ongoing investigation is concluded, Nigerians will be shocked by the sheer number of top and other categories of civil servants, who may be forced to resign as a result of their complicity in the salary scam,” the source added.
The Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media Matters, Mr. Festus Akanbi, however, refused to confirm the preliminary findings of the panel concerning the number of federal civil servants and banks that had been indicted by the committee.
Akanbi, who spoke to our correspondent on Thursday, explained that the exercise was ongoing, adding that the public would be appropriately informed when the full report of the panel was submitted.
The finance ministry had said the adoption of the BVN became inevitable due to the failure of the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System to effectively deal with the issue of ‘ghost’ workers in the federal civil service.
According to the ministry, the strategy of using BVN rather than requiring the physical presence of each member of staff has significantly simplified and accelerated the progress of the project and at a lower cost.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had, earlier in the year, said the BVN, which does not require a physical presence of a worker, would help accelerate the pace of enrolment.
“To date, despite over five years since the initiation of the project, only 20 per cent of public employees have actually been enrolled into IPPIS due to a variety of reasons,” Adeosun stated.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, recently said some top civil servants in the ministry were dismissed for collecting N400,000 each from 400 applicants whose names were then included in the IPPIS.
President Muhammadu Buhari has again defended his delay in composing his ministerial cabinet, saying civil servants and technocrats are more involved in the process of governance than ministers, who are only there to “make a lot of noise”.
General Buhari
Buhari was speaking on Wednesday in an interview with French television station, France 24.
Asked if the absence of a finance minister was affecting the Nigerian capital market and economy, Buhari said: “No. It is what we know –and which we learnt from the western system. The civil service provides the continuity, the technocrat. And in any case, they are the people who do most of the work.
“The ministers are there, I think, to make a lot of noise; for the politicians to make a lot of noise. But the work is being done by the technocrats. They are there; they have to provide the continuity, dig into the records and then guide us, [those of us] who are just coming in.
“They have been there, some of them for 15 years, some for 20 years. So I think this question of ministers is political. People from different constituencies want to see their people directly in government, and see what they can get out of it.”
Buhari did say, though, that he intends to stick with his decision to name his cabinet before the end of the month.
“As for the cabinet, I said we will have one by the end of the month, and time flies. The end of the month is coming too quickly for my liking.
“Yeah, I will stick to it. I will send the names to the national assembly.”
Reminded by his interviewer that “some have quipped that the country runs better without ministers”, the president said: “When you started introducing me, you said I was around 1983 to 1985.
“Even then we had ministers. So under this system, we have to have ministers; and we are going to have ministers.”
Comparing his current experience as the nation’s number one citizen to his time as a military ruler Buhari said: “The last time I was here, I was in barracks, this time I’m in a palace, I still need to find my way, it’s so big and must be very very expensive to maintain, but it’s there and cannot be removed.
“I believe firmly that multiparty democratic system is the best form of government but elections must be free and fair, otherwise, it’s the same old problem.”
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Alhaji Bukar Aji, has said that 1,050 civil servants, who were in the service illegally, would be retired in the next three weeks.
He spoke in Abuja at the ongoing 60th anniversary of the Nigeria Public Service Commission.
Aji said the screening done by Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) discovered that the civil servants were supposed to have retired from the service.
“Through the IPPIS, we screened those who were supposed to have retired long time ago. They will leave the service within the next two to three weeks,” he said.
The HOCSF said the exercise would create opportunity for those in legitimate service to be promoted.
Aji said there had been synergy, cooperation and collaboration between the HOCSF and the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).
He assured that the Federal Civil Service would be better this year, adding that he would not relent in his efforts to improve the service.
The Chairman, FCSC, Mrs. Joan Ayo, said the commission came into existence in April 1954 with the functions of employing, promoting and disciplining civil servants.
She said since the commission was the gateway to the civil service and exit way, it should be guided by rules.
“As the `entry into’ and ‘exit out’ of the service, the FCSC is committed to the traditional core values of the civil service.”
Mrs. Ayo listed the core values as meritocracy, anonymity, integrity, political neutrality, discipline, impartiality, accountability and transparency.
She said the celebration was necessary to recall the exploits of the founding fathers of the civil service.
“We are celebrating the past and looking at where we have got it wrong, so that we can improve and do it better,” the FCSC chairman said.
She explained that the civil service was an organ of government, which performed advisory role.
“The commission advises the government on policy, anticipating problems and deploying human, material and financial resources for effective execution of public policy.”
The Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. Ayim Pius Ayim, said government would ensure improved service.
Ayim, represented by Mr. Linus Awute, the Permanent Secretary, General Service of SGF, congratulated the efforts of the founding fathers, who worked hard to ensure transparency and meritocracy.
The theme of the celebration is: “Civil Service Core Values: The Sine Qua Non for National Development”. (0)
