Bayelsa govt uncovers 612 ‘ghost teachers’ on payroll

The Bayelsa State government says it has uncovered 612 ghost teachers in the state primary schools on government payroll.

A review by the state’s committee on grade levels and steps of local government and primary school staff, released on Tuesday, stated that out of 7,207 primary school teachers in the state employ, 612 were confirmed by headmasters as “ghost workers’ in their schools.

The committee was chaired by the Technical Adviser on Revenues and Accounts to Governor Duoye Diri, Timipre Seipulou, who presented the findings to the governor at the Government House in Yenagoa, the state capital.

Governor Diri had, in April this year, constituted the 33-member Committee to Review of Grade Levels and Steps of Local Government and Primary School Staff.

While presenting the report to the state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, who represented Diri, the committee chairman said a total of 14,258 cases were reviewed in the state’s local government councils.

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The report noted that the committee had looked at the cases of 7,207 primary school teachers, 5,893 council staff and 1,189 health workers all in the local government service.

The report added that 573 staff were not in the payrolls but were said to be physically present in the schools, while names of 10 dead and 13 retired staff were found in the payrolls.

The committee, however, recommended the setting up of a special team to review cases of staff who appear in the payrolls but are not in schools as well as removal of dead and retired staff from the wage bill.

It also advised government to use the April 2021 payrolls, grade levels and steps report as a basis to conduct physical verification of all staff with an Oracle Team on the ground to capture the biometrics of the workers during the verification exercise.

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