'Budget office has highest number of ghost workers'

Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi  Okonjo-Iweala has disclosed that the Budget Offie of the Federation has the highest number of ghost workers in the country  with 77.33 per cent followed by  the National Planning Commission with 74.90 per cent and  Offie of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation with 74.68 per cent.Public Service Institute came with  66.67 per cent and Ministry of Niger Delta  followed with 64.87 per cent, while, Ministry of In-formation has 57.15 per cent and the Federal Ministry of Works has 51.67 per cent. However, details of some agencies are not yet ready as some of them are not on Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).  

Recall that Okonjo Iweala  announced in mid-2013 that the Federal Government has  saved N118.9 billion and 46, 639 ghost workers were weeded out through the implementation of the Inte-grated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in 215 Ministries, Depart ments and Agencies of Gov-ernment (MDAs). However, 321 MDAs are still outstand-ing and have not become part of the IPPIS.Against this backdrop, Stop Impunity Nigeria Cam-paign (SIN) is demanding the publication of  the Ac-counting Officers(the Permanent Secretaries of the  Ministries or the heads of an Extra-Ministerial Deparments) of these ministries  as at the time the ghost workers drew the salaries and perks of office. 

In a statement, the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Mr Eze Onyekpere, said:  "They were responsible for safeguarding public funds and the regularity and propriety of expenditure un-der their control. The N118.9 billion did not disappear into thin air.