Ondo State Discovers 10, 000 Ghost Workers among its Local Governments’ Staff

Information emerging from the Ondo State Government has revealed that a committee set up by the government to look into the alleged over-bloated staff of local governments across the state has discovered about 10, 000 ghost workers in the 18 councils.
The committee, led by the former Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Deji Falae, became necessary, following the discovery that many of the councils could not pay the salary of their members of staff. It was learnt that the state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, set up the committee after it was discovered that about N500 million of the fund of the state government was being used to augment salary of the local government councils.
It was also alleged that many of the chairmen of the affected councils had, in the past, loaded their wage bills and backdated appointments of workers. The problem, however, became obvious, when the councils went back to the days of zero allocation to their local governments; many of them found it difficult to pay staff salary, particularly after the implementation of the new minimum wage.
Meanwhile, the committee was also said to have discovered that many of the appointments were irregular, as the beneficiaries in many cases were not given letters of appointment, while some of the letters given out were handwritten and without proper documentation at the council.