Ondo govt loses over N400m to payroll infraction

Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has directed the Head of Service to dismiss officers who are receiving double salaries from the state payroll.

Governor Akeredolu gave the directive while receiving the report of the Committee for Verification, Scrutinization and cean-up of the State Payroll.

The Governor, who suspected that the State Payroll including salaries and pensions had been compromised, set up a seven-member committee to continuously clean up the payroll of infractions.

The committee, led by the Chairman and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Victor Olajorin, on Wednesday submitted its report to the Governor at his office, Alagbaka, Akure.

Receiving the reports, Governor Akeredolu frowned at the different infractions discovered in the payroll.

He lamented the over-bloated workforce which he said was occasioned by many ghost workers.

The Governor also directed that all Ministries, Departments and Parastatals in the State should stop recruitment under any guise until the Salary Verification Committee has concluded its assignment.

He noted that the committee also obtained vital documents like the Nominal Roll, Disposition List, Pay Register and Pension Payroll so as to achieve its mandate.

Details as contained in the Volume 1 report of the Committee. In the process, a sum of N304,859,812.51 was discovered as the aggregate loss to the State Government from the above infractions.

The exercise led to the discovery of some unwholesome practice like abscondment, study leave without pay, payment of salaries to officers after resignation, while some officers couldn’t be traced to any health facilities.

So far, a sum of N192,873,592 has been discovered from HMB as the total loss to the State Government.