Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has reiterated his administration resolve to prune down the workers’ wage bill in the state from N7.8 billion to N4.5billion monthly.
Ortom who spoke to newsmen in Makurdi also submitted that some cabals were who were behind bloated wage bill would be made to face the wrath of the law.
The governor who decried the rots in the civil service explained that ghost workers have taken over local government areas leading to huge wage bill.
According to him, ‘in my local government (Guma) ought not to have more than 150 workers but have 950 workers and just pay visit to the place you have few people at their duty post.’
“But when salary is being paid you see several people coming around to collect their salary and disappear.”
“Their is no way we can allow this rot to continue we will fight it and make sure that we remove all ghost workers in the state, we have resolved to reduce the monthly wage bill from N7.8 billion to N4.5 billion and this would be for only genuine workers.”
“We are determined to fish out these ghost workers no matter the intimidation, I have the mandate of Benue people up to 2019 and I will use it to work for the state”.
The governor hinted that 13 people indicted by judicial commission of inquiry set up by his administration were being investigated by anti graft agencies.
He hinted that his administration had recovered about N370million from a company indicted by judicial commission of inquiry.
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