Bauchi Ghost workers: Is the recent verification exercise another government hoax?

The drama regarding Bauchighost workers dated back to MA Abubakar’s administration. But it was amplified

in the build-up to the 2019 general elections by then Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives, Yakubu Dogara. Dogara at the time alleged that he had uncovered massive fraud perpetrated by the Bauchi State government under GovernorMohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, amounting to the tune of N400 billion.

The allegations were frightening—leaving tongues wagging asto how MA Abubakar who had not employed a single worker was said to have spentsuch amount on salaries.

When Bala Mohammed was sworn inas governor—he immediately swung into action to uncover and take action on theanomaly. He started by suspending SUBEB contracts, one of the hotbed ofcorruption in the state’s civil service that is said to have housed thousandsof ghost workers.

The Governorwas unequivocal in his revelation—he said 20 in every 100 teachers on thepaycheque of the state government were ghost teachers. And he was determined tofish out the ghost workers and get the culprits behind them brought to book.

On the 6^th of July,2019, the governor reiterated his resolve to once and for all fight the menaceof ghost workers in the state by announcing more discoveries. He was again verybrutal in his revelation—saying after receiving updates from a week longministerial briefing, he understood that most of the ghost workers inBauchi state were under the payroll of local governments.

The Governor immediatelydirected the State Civil Service Commission to block the leakages, pending aninvestigation which he says was in the offing.

From that time, at every pointthe governor was interacting with stakeholders, he could be heard lamentingabout the ghost workers’ saga, which he referred to as ‘parasitic’; eating fromthe mean meal of the state, which only rely on the monthly federal allocationfor survival.

For instance, while swearing in his commissioners, thegovernor, on September 6^th tasked the newlyappointed commissioners who were yet to get any portfolio at the time to joinhands with his administration in its efforts towards repositioning the stateand flushing out ghost workers.

The governortold them that there were plenty of ghost workers in their ministries and thatthey needed to be ejected out.

On the 21^st ofOctober, 2019, the state government through state’s Head of Civil Service announced that over 41,000 civil servantsfrom different MDAs may lose October salary due to their inability to have Bank VerificationNumber linked to their salary accounts.

“From the available records, it was discovered that total numberof 41,448 staff were affected by this development with the following breakdown:
A) State service. 5,316
B). Primary Healthcare. 1,933
C,. Local Education Authority. 19,605
D, Local Government staff 4,705
E) State pensioners. 4,019
F) Local Government pensioners 5,870

The announcement was greeted with an urgent action by Governor Bala Mohammed. On the 25^th of October, 2019, the governor suspended all education Secretaries, Directors of Primary Health care and their Treasurers of all the 20 local government areas of the state.

ALSO READ: BVN Verification: Will Bala Mohammed Win the War Against Ghost Workers?

In astatement, the state’s commissioner for information, Ladan Salihu says thesuspension was toenable the state government conduct investigation into thepayment of salaries to civil servants without Bank Verification, BVN.

It followed swiftly by settingup a 17 member ‘authenticationcommittee’ whose terms of reference include to investigate whether theover 41,000 staff being paid monthly were genuine staff of the state.

The 17 membercommittee had 8 terms of reference that were categorical on BVN as could beseen below:

What it meant was that the affected workers needed to prove their genuineness as to whether they were civil servants of the state or not—so they needed to print their BVN and submit to their respective LGAs for verification.

ALSO READ: Bauchi Government sets 17 member ‘authentication committee’ for over 41, 000 staff on state’s payroll without BVN

Many of them trooped to theirbanks to obtain their BVN, many were extorted by a commercial bank amounting toN525 just to obtain their BVN print out.

Responding to the alleged extortion, Isiaka Tijjani, Secretary of the 17 memberauthentication committee said they have not asked any of the affected persons tosubmit his/her Bank Verification Number BVN—a clear contradiction of the terms ofreference of the committee.

Isiaka’s declaration also contravenes an earlier assertion by the Chairman ofthe committee, Adamu Gumba who, during a pressbriefing pledged fairness to all and sundry regarding the BVN verification.

From the foregoing, one thing is clear—the recent drama inBauchi state about ghost workers hinges around BVN. When workers are told thatno one requested for their BVN regarding the verification amounts to doublestandards. The conflicting statements coming from different governmentofficials regarding the BVN saga is beginning to cast doubt about theauthenticity of the whole exercise—forcing some commentators to ask whether the governor was winningthe war against the ghost workers or it’s another government hoax.

 This, also points tothe idea that the government needs to do more in managing information regardingits activities—for, information management is critical in avertingspeculations—and failure to do so may spell doom for an administration that rodeon populists’ view to power. Its media managers need to do more in clearing themess that is already garnering momentum—that could save it from a catastrophicend.

 Haruna who tweets@haruna_babale is the Head of Investigations, WikkiTimes.