Ghost workers: Dickson laments N3bln monthly wage bill in Bayelsa

Bayelsa Governor Mr Henry Seriake Dickson on Thursday attributed the huge wage bill of the state to prevalence of ghost workers in the public service.

Dickson made the observation during the monthly breakdown of the state’s income and expenditure for the month of January 2013.

He said that the ghost workers’ syndrome was responsible for the bloated civil service in the state and described the situation as unhealthy.

“Our wage bill is still very high because we have a lot of people who are listed on the payroll but they are hardly seen, for instance in the primary school system, while we have some 5,000 teaching staff. We now have more than 8,000 non academic staff in the primary school system where we need mostly teachers, we are in dire need of more teachers so there is a need to recruit more teachers. This problem was actually inherited from past administrations where local government chairmen enrolled people to collect salaries without working, we cannot continue this way,” he said.

The Governor further stated that the salaries for political office holders for the month under review amounted to N304 million.

The administration, he said was working to further reduce the salaries of political appointees in the state by creating opportunities in the private sector.

He also announced that the administration was poised to tackle the ghost workers’ menace to free the wasted funds for development purposes.