Over 800 Ghost Workers Uncovered In Cross River

By Musa Kutama

Cross River State Government has taken necessary steps to flush out ghost workers it has discovered in its civil service.

Ensuring the public service’s transparency, the Cross River Local Government Service Commission (CR-LGSC) has said that it has uncovered, through the recently conducted audit exercise, that 800 ghost workers were on its payroll and still collecting salaries.

Chairman of the Commission, Darlington Bassey Eyo, disclosed this shortly after a personnel audit and verification exercise for local government staff across the 18 local government areas of the state, adding that the exercise was aimed at reducing the state’s bloated wage bill.

According to him, “the commission has been conducting a thorough audit of local government staff to identify ghost workers and ensure that only bonafide employees were on the payroll.

“During the exercise, the commission discovered 800 ghost workers whose names have been removed from the payroll, yet collecting salaries,” Eyo revealed.

He reiterated the commission’s commitment towards a unified local government service where efficiency and high productivity thrives.

Eyo noted that harmonisation of payroll will enable the timely payment of salaries to staff in their respective local government areas of assignment.

The chairman who lauded the Governor, Prince Bassey Otu, for approving recruitment into the local government service, expressed dissatisfaction over hints that jobs were being sold.

He further directed all local government staff to ensure that they obtained their Voters’ Cards from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in their respective local government areas.