Delta govt removes 530 staff members from payroll, recovers N12.319bn

Delta state government has taken a stern measure on the over 530 staff who falsified their retirement age and other official records or refused to appear before the staff verification committee by expunging their names from the payroll immediately.

The sum of N12.319b is expected to be recovered from the affected workers including those who are due for retirement.

The committee on age discrepancy and date of birth and employment of public officers in the state was set up to determine the actual number of workers in the state.

Receiving the final report of the committee from Chief Nkem Okwuofu, the chairman, in Asaba, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa decried falsification of documents and laxity on the part of those who aided and abetted such actions in the public service.

Bemoaning the connivance of staff in the falsification and handling of records especially those that are dead and retired, the governor directed the head of service to take disciplinary action against the heads and directors of affected Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

According to him, “It is quite unfortunate that at this point in time we are still dealing with this situation in our public service where people can still voluntarily work with other people to change their date of birth and date of appointment and it is something that all of us must frown at.

“I believe that the public service and its management must continuously frown at such an act because it is not possible for any staff to unilaterally change his or her date of birth or appointment, so obviously there is a collusion in the entire system and it worries me that at this point in time this is still ongoing”, he said.

“Head of Service, with effect from today, the 402 absentees have to be disengaged from the payroll completely and the people that are due to retire, must be expunged from the payroll between today and tomorrow, we cannot continue to tolerate this, it is very unfortunate that we continue to see people who are dead and are still receiving salaries” Okowa said.

Earlier, while presenting the report, Chief Okwuofu disclosed that a total of 4,742 persons were screened out of which 1,695 were cleared, 137 were asked to proceed on retirement, 810 had their dates of birth and employment corrected and 2,085 verified and affirmed while 402 were absent.

She disclosed that with the correction of dates of birth of some staff in the payroll who ought to have retired but, for the falsification of records and others whose dates of birth were altered though not within retirement age, the exercise has resulted in total financial gains of 12,319,762,921.20 naira for the state government.