Member representing Nnewi North, Nnewi South, Ekwusigo federal constituency at the National Assembly Abuja, Hon Chris Azubogu has narrated how he helped to stop N100 million monthly loss in Anambra State.
Azubogu in a press statement that he made available to Nigerian Tribune in Awka, said that before 2007, Anambra State was losing money to ghost workers and ghost schools.
He lamented that before then, some schools only existed on paper, while the funds mapped out for them and the staff of such schools were pocketed by certain individuals.
Azubogu said: “Between 1999 and 2003, Anambra State civil servants went on strike on several occasions.
At some point, schools were closed down and students were at home for over one year.
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“As a young Tech Entrepreneur running an IT firm in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and specialising on the use of IT to solve private and public organisational problems, I was so concerned about the unpalatable situation in my state. As a result, I thought of how to use my talent and IT solutions to solve the problem.”
Azubogu hinted that in 2007, he approached the Anambra State government, headed by Mr Peter Obi with a proposal and was later given the job of consulting for it on payroll management.
“We conducted a biometric verification on the state civil servants and removed ghost workers and ghost schools from the payroll.
“It was during that verification exercise that I found out that there were schools that existed on papers in government offices at Awka, but were nowhere to be found in reality.
“They were what I referred to as ‘ghost schools’ that were used to loot government’s money; thus making it impossible for the government to pay salaries.
“That helped the state government to pay the right or actual salaries promptly and, most importantly, enabled the administration to save about N100 million every month,” Azubogu stated.
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