Ghost Workers Drain N942m as Police Top ICPC Probe

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has exposed a widespread payroll fraud that saw 908 fake employees siphon about N942 million from federal coffers, with the Nigeria Police Force leading the list of offenders.

ICPC Chairman Musa Adamu Aliyu (SAN) said the commission’s audit of 50 ministries, departments and agencies uncovered phantom staff whose names were secretly added to government payrolls. The findings, reported by BBC Pidgin on Wednesday, show how corrupt officials exploited the system to steal public money.

Ghost workers are fictitious names inserted into payroll records so insiders can collect salaries illegally. In some cases, staff allegedly enrolled relatives or friends who never worked for the government.

One case revealed a man who listed his wife, son and mother-in-law as employees while also drawing wages meant for 12 other workers.

The police force topped the list with 570 suspected fake workers. “We identified 570 people we suspect are fake workers collecting salaries without working,” Aliyu said.

The National Water Resources Authority followed with 80 questionable names. “We identified 80 names of people collecting salaries even though they are not workers of the agency,” he added.

Other agencies implicated include the Federal Ministry of Works with 56 suspected ghost workers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with 24, and the Ministry of Defence with 19. Both the Federal Ministry of Electricity and the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment each had 17 fake entries. The Federal Ministry of Health recorded 15, while the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had 12.

The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Interior were also named in the probe, though the ICPC did not disclose specific numbers for those offices.

Aliyu said investigations will continue across federal institutions to stop further losses and recover stolen funds.

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