The Zamfara Government says it has uncovered a 119-year-old man (name withheld) on its payroll while trying to sanitise its wage bill.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Rabiu Garba, disclosed at a news conference on Sunday in Gusau that the centenarian had been collecting salary.
Rabiu made this revelation while shedding more light on the state government’s plans to sue about 200 persons illegally on its payroll who have been collecting monthly salary.
The commissioner also said he confronted the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Mr. Mahdi Ali-Gusau, over allegations on social media that the deputy governor was collecting double salary.
According to him, the deputy governor denied the speculations and submitted himself for further scrutiny to prove his innocence.
The commissioner, however, said on further investigations, it was discovered that “some directors of finance were involved in the racket of inflating the state workers’ monthly wage bill and pocketing the excess.”
He also revealed that the scam was more at the state Health Service Management Board, where investigations allegedly showed that some suspended directors of finance were fraudulently selling fake offers of employment at the cost of N250,000 to innocent job seekers.
He added that the state government was, so far, losing more than N216m monthly to the racketeers.
Ali-Gusau said the state government could employ an additional 8,000 persons and pay them salary comfortably if financial loopholes were blocked.
(NAN)
