Published On:Sunday, April 29, 2012
Posted by Unknown
N6bn payroll fraud: Bayelsa civil servants on the run
Indications emerged on Friday that some senior civil servants in Bayelsa State, had gone into hiding to evade arrest after investigations by the anti-fraud unit of the Nigeria police linked them to a N6bn payroll scam.
The senior civil servants comprising some chairmen of boards and directors were said to be the brains behind the staggering number of ghost, underage and dead workers.
Our correspondent gathered that the state’s Treasury and the Universal Basic Education Board were significantly involved in the scam, which had depleted the revenue accruing to the state from the Federal Government.
A government source who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter said, “They have all disappeared. We suspect that the senior civil servants that no longer come to work are afraid of being arrested but we will get them, They can only run, they can’t hide.”
It was learnt that shortly after 20 officials of the treasury were arrested by the police, the acting Chairman, Supervisory Account Officer and other officials of SUBEB were also rounded up at different locations in the state capital.
Our correspondent learnt that a senior employee of SUBEB provided useful information that indicted the officials and led to their arrest.
It was alleged that some lawmakers of the state House of Assembly and a former Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development connived with some officials to inflate SUBEB’s payroll with over 100 ghost names.
The state governor, Dickson had reportedly ordered that the arrested officials should not be granted bail until a former chairman of the board and members had been apprehended.
He said the suspects had confessed to the alleged crime, adding that there was no hiding place for other suspects who were on the run.
“We discovered three sets of vouchers used in the payment of salaries in SUBEB. The place is a rotten area and that is why people are lobbying to be posted to the board.”
Dickson added that the monthly wage bill of the state had been reduced from N6bn to N3.8bn after the initial efforts of the government to remove ghost names from the payroll.
The governor further said that his administration had saved N23bn from allocations accruing to the state from the federation account between February and April.