An ongoing staff verification at the National Assembly has led to the discovery of about 150 ghost workers, The Nation has learnt.

A hundred of the ghost workers were discovered in the House of Representatives, sources said.

“The verification exercise has turned up fundamental discoveries,” one source said.

The verification is part of the measures put in place to reduce the running cost of the legislative arm.



It was gathered that the debt profile of the National Assembly which is put at N17billion has been giving the leadership some concern.

The huge debt is understood to be largely responsible for the inability of the management to procure utility vehicles for the lawmakers at once, as well as upgrading of existing facilities and embarking on other projects.

A sum of N7b is earmarked for the purchase of utility vehicles for the lawmakers in the 2017 budget.

To address the debt and other management issues, following a protest by legislative aides, the management embarked on the staff verification exercise that commenced last year with legislative aides.

The legislative aides have been paid only one quarterly allowance of N75,000 per head since the inauguration of the 8th Assembly.

N9.6b including N150m for capital projects was allocated to Legislative aides by the National Assembly management in the 2017 budget.



In a memorandum to all lawmakers, details of legislative aides attached to individual lawmakers were requested.

This was prompted by reports that some lawmakers employed fewer than the mandatory five aides.

The lawmakers were requested to provide the names, designation, cadre and other details of their aides.

The management has already reduced the number and salaries of legislative aides to the presiding officers and their deputies.

Between them, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker have about 20 aides earning between N450,000 and N950,000 monthly.

Done with the legislative aides, the management embarked on staff audit exercise whereby all civil servants were directed to physically appear before a panel with their employment letters.

The completion of the physical appearance was followed by physical payment of salary which did not go down well with a number of workers.

The table payment of salary that began in April may last through till June, it was learnt.

This became necessary as it was discovered that some workers that turned up for the physical verification failed to show up for the salary table payment.

Sources said some names on the payroll are those of those “have either left the service or transferred from NASS.

“Some that have either retired or dead still maintain their places on the payroll.

“The discovery of all these was made possible by the physical audit exercise.

“It is now obvious that the management was just burdened by induced manipulations but I think by the time this is concluded and necessary sanctions applied on those found culpable, the fortune of the institution will begin to improve,” she said.

The staff verification exercise also became imperative following allegations of falsification of appointment details by some senior staff jostling for the position of the Clerk of the House.

The incumbent, Gani Ojagbohunmi has a year to retire from service, it was learnt.

Irregular inter-departmental transfer without documentations and approval was also cited as part of the reasons responsible for the staff audit exercise

Some Directors were alleged to have falsified their age in order to gain undue advantage for the existing vacancies in the management cadre.

According to the source, no fewer than five Heads of Departments, especially those seconded from other establishments have changed their records of service in order to prolong their stay in service.

Efforts to get reaction from the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Mohammed Sani-Omolori failed as his security aides told our reporters that the CNA could only be contacted through phone.

They told our reporters to call the CNA.

After being told that the CNA’s phone numbers were in not in public domain, the reporters were later referred to Yahaya Dan Zaria, Director, Public Affairs (Office of the CNA), who also refused to see the reporters but asked Director, Information and Publication, Ishaku Dibal to interface with the reporters.

Dibal informed the reporters that answers to their queries could only be provided by the Secretary, Corporate Affairs, Bala Shehu Jabo who remained unavailable, despite several visits to his office.


http://thenationonlineng.net/150-ghost-workers-discovered-national-assembly/

If we can get rid of the two house of corruption


Half of Nigeria problem is solved

Sarathief and his cohorts are Epidemic to the global peace

Saraki is not among them ke

States need to start paying for their lawmakers. An amendment should be made to that effect. These lawmakers are elected and represent their individual states. Let the states carry their burden.

Good Riddance!!

baby124:
States need to start paying for their lawmakers. An amendment should be made to that effect. These lawmakers are elected and represent their individual states. Let the states carry their burden.

Can't but totally agree with you

The two upper chambers are not helping matters at all......its high time they legislate with decorum and save our democracy or continue paying lip service to the needs of the people..

out of the 309 Dishonorable rep members aint like 216 of them ghosts before

appear once or twice a month
yet collecting sitting allowance


fvck the government....

#revolutionNeeded

restructure this country biko.

House of corruption

Why can't they call a cab

We all know dis na... MDA's, House of Assembly and most importantly the Presidency itself are all involved in it... Whether we want to admit it or not they are all involved in running dis nation down... D huge cost of running the govt alone is d sole reason why dey all jostle to remain there one way or d other.. It is always easier to blame d Senate because it's convenient but is d Presidency left out? They are all involved as dey are one and d same ppl united by personal interests.

only in Nigeria will able bodied graduates be loafing and ghosts be working...we need confirm oro festival in our mda's to send the ghosts away so that youths can get the jobs.

baby124:
States need to start paying for their lawmakers. An amendment should be made to that effect. These lawmakers are elected and represent their individual states. Let the states carry their burden.

sarrki:


Can't but totally agree with you

In a federal system of government, No such amendment can be done. The State governments are only responsible for the States house of Assembly while the NASS is paid from the federation account since it forms an arm of the central government & it primarily makes law on behalf of the 36states of the federation.

However, a total reversal from this norm would be to adopt regionalism.

adadike281:
restructure this country biko.

you need to restructure your sense first before you talk about the restructuring of the country. Hope my advice would help.

The should also purge ASO ROCK of some Ghost Workers, Many of them may be there too