The Federal Government has confirmed what bankers have been saying: that many accounts domiciled in banks are dubious and only serves as conduit pipes to defraud. This is sequel to the discovery that about 23, 000 ghost workers are in the federal civil service. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, revealed this on Thursday.
Mrs. Adeosun, who appeared before the senate committee said the discovery, was made possible due to the introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN).
She said the introduction of the BVN exposed the failure of the Integrated Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to effectively deal with the issue of ghost workers in the federal civil service adding the investigation is still ongoing and it will be concluded in a month’s time.
According to her, the civil servants connived with some banks to perpetrate the fraud, assuring that they would be handed over to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.
The Minister also vowed to ensure that the banks that connived with the workers to pad the Federal government payroll are going to be prosecuted too.
Her words, “We will not only sack them, we will ensure the recovery of the money they have been collecting over the years from the Federal government.”
Adeosun told the senate committee that IPPIS was able to register only 295,000 in five years to deal with issue of ghost workers but with advent of BVN over 320,000 have been registered within three months.
