Civil Service Employment: Delta State Discovers Over 20,000 Ghost Workers

The Delta State Government has discovered over 20,000 ghost workers in its employment through the ongoing biometric verification exercise in the state civil service.
It said the reduction was as a result of retirements, those who absconded and ghost workers.
Daily Independent reports that the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Festus Agas, in an inter-ministerial press briefing on Monday in Asaba said the measures put in place by the present administration has reduced the number of workers on the state government’s payroll from over 65,000 in 2015 to about 45,000.
He further said the biometric exercise was not to victimize workers but to determine the exact number of personnel in the different segments of the workforce, as well as available vacancies in the system.
He also stated that the ongoing clock in and clock out on a daily basis by workers at their duty post is not a witch hunting exercise but to check ghost workers in the system.
While saying the Asaba Airport has been shut to airline traffic for the next five weeks, he disclosed that it is to enable the contractor complete the rehabilitation of the airport’s runway.
He said: “Upgrade of the airport has been going on after it was downgraded in 2015 by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) as a result of undulating runway, meddlesome hills, and lack of perimeter fencing among other issues.”
Addressing journalists on the activities of his office since the inception of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa administration, Agas disclosed that the upgrade project will also involve the installation of technical facilities.
“In order to further boost the economy of the state, the Asaba Airport has been undergoing a major upgrade especially, the resurfacing of its runway and the provision of some vital technical facilities such as the Voice Communication System (VCS), the Automatic Weather Observation System (AWOS) and Low Level Windshear Alert System (LLWAS).
“It is necessary to note here, that the airport will be closed to traffic for about five weeks with effect from today, April 9 to enable the completion of the resurfacing of the runway,” he added.
Agas said the appointment of political ward liaison as well as the monthly payment of N5,000 stipend to 20 widows per ward is not politically motivated, insisting that the beneficiaries were carefully selected to ensure that they were among the vulnerable group.