N49.9bn Salaries Collected by ‘Ghost’ Workers -ICPC

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) says the N13.59 trillion 2021 budget was padded by various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies with duplicated projects worth N300 billion and N49.4 billion for ghost workers.

During an interaction with the Senate Committee on Finance, the ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, also revealed that projects duplication worth N100 billion were also inserted into the N17.12 trillion 2022 budget by some MDAs, in addition to the N49.9 billion tracked as salary for ghost workers between January and June this year.

Owasanoye explained that the N300 billion duplicated projects in the 2021 budget and the N100 billion duplicated projects in the 2022 budget were tracked through scrutiny of approved projects for the various MDAs.

The ICPC boss stated, ” N300billion would have been wasted by the Federal government on duplicated projects inserted into the 2021 budget and N100billion for same purpose in the current fiscal year if not tracked and intercepted by ICPC.”

” The same preemptive move, saved the country from spending N49.9billion for salaries of ghost workers put on fictitious payroll by the fraudulent MDAs between January and June this year.”

Owasanoye went on to say that the names of the MDAs involved in project duplications involving intercepted billions of Naira and fictitious payrolls are available and will be forwarded to the committee.

“The good thing about the preemptive moves made by us is that monies for the fraudulent acts were prevented from being released to the affected MDAs and it is gratifying that the Finance Ministry and Accountant General Office cooperated with us,” he said.

The N49.9 billion traced to ghost workers by the ICPC is bound to interest watchers of the anti-corruption mantra of the government.

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