BY GERARD UCHE
Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State says a cabal exists within the payroll system of the state, insisting that all anomalies in payments records must be corrected.
The Governor had come under criticisms for delaying payment of workers’ salaries in the state.
In a broadcast to mark his 100 days in office, he said there are discrepancies in the payroll system in the state.
“The Imo State of which, by the Grace of God, I am the Governor, has the funds to meet all recurrent expenditures. But not a kobo will go to the Cabal of payroll fraudsters who have held the State hostage for many years.
“A crucial look at Salary management in the state revealed some startling trends that has consistently hemorrhaged our common treasury.
Some glaring mismatch discovered amply proves that the state salary regime is fraught with corrupt manipulations
“I found it curious that a state with 56,000 workers (both state and LGA) only captured 17, 000 persons in the income tax otherwise known as Pay as you Earn(PAYE)
“More mesmerising is the fact that the nominal roll of Pensioners have stood at 30,000 for ten years now. This will mean that there has been no retirements in the last 10 years and no Pensioner has died either
“These are discoveries that clearly showcase sharp practices in the state payroll system.
“The absence of a BVN security in payment of salaries is yet another source of fraud. It is common knowledge that in this digital age, BVN is a necessary component of salary payments. Quite instructively most of the payroll fraud were committed through multiple entries of the same BVN for different names on the payroll. It was incredible to discover that some people earned salaries as civil servants and at the same time earned pension as Pensioners. Indeed what we discovered in the process of cross checking BVNs against names on the payroll were truly saddening .
“I can tell you today that by insisting on the enforcement of BVN records, which uniquely ties each worker to a distinct bank account, I have been able to save about N2 Billion monthly from the wage bill of Imo Workers and Pensioners.
“I consider it a great achievement that through these painstaking exercise of eradicating the stinking fraud in the public service payroll system, the sum of N2bn (Two Billion Naira) is saved every month for the state. This huge sum will be ploughed back to infrastructural development. This means that the Government will be able to deliver more roads, more housing and better hospitals and schools in the coming months and years.
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