N104 Billion Raked in by Federal 'Ghost Workers'

The so-called 'ghost workers' who, by some means, got employed into the services of the Federal Government of Nigeria, must be reproducing themselves. Otherwise, how are these numbers possible: in 2011, there were 28,000 of them; but, according to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, there were already 46,821 of them last Monday?

Earlier this year, the Minister of State for Finance, Malam Yerima Ngama, addressed this issue when briefing State House Correspondents on the outcome of one of the Federal Executive Council meetings in February; he disclosed  there were 45,000 ghost workers on the payroll of the Federal Government, earning some 100 billion naira in salaries and other emolument.
Such 'ghost workers' were discovered, according to Ngama, in 215 ministries, departments and agencies under an Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS).
Either the 'ghosts' are adept at beating all legitimate measures deployed to smoke them out, or the IPPIS is not particularly fortified to deter them.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala praised the work that helped to 'discover' nearly 47,000 ghosts in 215 agencies of government.
As of last Monday, the ghost workers were raking in over 104 billion from the federal government purse.
This fact is alarming enough to make the responsible government officials react.
The same IPPIS that Mrs Okonjo-Iweala and Mr Ngama referred in their separate briefings has been in place for years now; if the number of ghosts keeps rising, not falling, in spite of the system, the investment and faith in it are misplaced.
If the IPPIS has not deterred ghosts from haunting the ministries and their agencies, and inserting themselves to be recognised on pay days, then it is left to the imagination what might be going on in the other 321 government departments that are yet to be equipped with the system. They may be swarming with ghosts too, possibly outnumbering bona fide civil servants.
What is clear is that there is high level of impunity going on in the administration of the federal payroll system. When the ghost worker phenomenon was discovered and measures taken to stem payroll haemorrhage, how many of the collaborating members of staff have been identified and disciplined? There is no record of that happening, and Mrs Okonjo-Iweala offered no clues.
The notion of ghost workers in government payrolls is not new, although it is of course nonsense.
The minister noted in her remarks: 'The IPPIS enhances efficient personnel cost planning and budgeting as personnel cost will be based on actual verified numbers, and not estimates.' She added that the 'discovery' of the ghost workers was part of the government's reform measures aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in the management of its resources.
The government has some way to go to exorcise such ghosts that are in fact its officials in blood and flesh who devise every means to help themselves to what they have not legitimately earned.
Where to begin is to re-examine the integrity of the IPPIS, and ensure that it is properly calibrated to do the task expected of it.
Government officials who should know when a staff member has retired, or is dismissed or dead must relay that information to appropriate personnel to be fed into the IPPIS to adjust the payroll accordingly. Where this is not done, the relevant officers need to explain. Stringent measures should be taken to punish those who sustain the ghost worker syndrome in the pay system.