FG Has been Saving N13bn Monthly Since February After Removing 50,000 Ghost Workers from Payroll

Garba Shehu

The Federal Government says it has removed 50,000 ghost workers from its payroll and has saved N13 billion monthly since February this year.





Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity said that the government also saves N1.1 billion monthly from pension bill in the fight against corruption.

Shehu stated at an interactive session with State House correspondents to mark the end of the year that the 11-man in connection with the ghost workers had been arrested and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“The flagship programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to rid the system of fraud and instil good governance is on course. Through a notable initiative – the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance – the government has embarked on the continuous auditing of the salaries and wages of government departments.

When the committee was constituted in February 2016, the Federal Government’s monthly salary bill was N151 billion, excluding pensions. Now the monthly salary warrant is N138 billion, excluding pensions, which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13 billion. That is from February 2016 to date.

The pension bill was N15.5 billion monthly as at February. Now it is down to N14.4 billion, which means average monthly saving is made of about N1.1 billion,” he said.

Shehu stated that about 50,000 ghost workers have been removed from the payroll. With this more funds are at the disposal of the federal government to attend to more important needs of governance. It will also attend to the unpaid or delayed salaries that the Federal Government is yet to pay its works.