Kwara govt to spend N547m to weed out ‘ghost workers”
The Kwara State government, on Thursday, said it has approved the auditing of the state and local government payrolls to weed out ghost workers.
Hajia Aisha Ahman-Pategi who disclose this in Ilorin, the state capital, shortly after the state’s cabinet meeting said the comprehensive auditing will gulp N547m covering all government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as the entire 16 local government areas, and would last a period of 24 weeks, Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development.
Ahman-Pategi said the cabinet approved the auditing after listening to a presentation by the Head of Head Susan Modupe Oluwole on the urgency and proprietary of the exercise to cleanse the state’s payroll, save cost, and boost the state’s capacity to pay the minimum wage.
“The Kwara State Executive Council meeting took place today 12th March, 2020 and approved the provision of employees’ biometric, clock-in, staff audit, and human resource solution for the state government (and local government) at the contractual sum of N547,627,230,” she said.
The audit is to be done by Messrs S.S. Afemikhe Consulting with antecedents of similar auditing in other states of the country.
“The council also urged all voters in Patigi to remain law abiding when the by-election for the state House of Assembly comes up on Saturday.”
Asked what the government is doing to mitigate the the effect of plunging price of crude oil in the international market, Ahman-Pategi said the council resolved to boost revenue generation through agriculture, mining and other non-oil sectors.
“That issue came up at the council especially given the fact that the 2020 budget was benchmarked on $57 per barrel of oil. Today, the price of crude oil is around $30 and it is still going down. It is a global tsunami and we believe that for us in Kwara, Nigeria and Africa, this is a big opportunity for us to look inward at the non-oil sectors, particularly mining and agriculture, to generate more money to serve the public,” she said.
