BVN exposes 23,306 ghost workers on FG payroll

According to The Nation, of the 312,306 civil servants, whose bank accounts have so far been checked through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform, 23,306 had issues with their accounts and are to be deleted from the FG’s payroll. Some of them have already tendered their resignation letters to pre-empt dismissal and prosecution.

A source said: “The 23,306 were suspected to have been collecting double salaries. They 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.

What this means is either those in this category are drawing salary from two sources (which could be different agencies), or they are ghost workers. The probe also showed that salaries were being paid to some inactive accounts, thus raising the suspicion that government was merely making payment to ghost workers.”

It was gathered that the FG has placed some banks under watch for their roles in the salary scam. The probe panel was said to have discovered that some of the inactive accounts were domiciled in a particular branch of a bank. It was learnt that over 300 accounts of some civil servants were opened on the same day and all of them have become dormant.