The Minister of Finance Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has revealed that the ongoing verification exercise by the Federal Government has in some MDAS (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) saved the nation N4.5 billion, while 43,000 ghost workers were uncovered.

The Minister stated this yesterday, after carrying out a similar exercise of staff under the payroll of the Nigerian Police Force, through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), organised by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

“The figure keeps changing; everyday, we keep cleaning up the pay roll and this has been going on for a long time. But so far, they are about 43,000 and it keeps on increasing and we would continue until we remove all because every time we remove those who shouldn’t be there, it create rooms to employ those, who are ready to work and create money to spend on things the country needs.”

On the possible prosecution of ghost workers, Adeosun said, “we are in talks with the EFCC and they are going to start the prosecutions very soon. Some do not exist, but got into the payroll through a fraudulent way. Some people are collecting salaries from two or three places. In fact, some people died and no one told us about their demise, but through this exercise, such kind of people will be discovered. But when people are fraudulent, they should be prosecuted and if it is an error, maybe you resigned ‎and you have written letters that the government should stop paying salaries into your account, but they have refused, it will be unfair to such person.”

Adeosun, however, assured that despite the challenges confronting the nation, the economy still remains strong and resilient, assuring that sooner than later, the present hardship would end.

“Nigeria is going through economic hardships because of declining oil prices but the fundamentals of the economy remains strong. What we have to do is to make sure this painful period is used to our advantage by removing the wasteful spending, stopping corruption so that when money is spent by government it is spent very effectively to the benefit of the people; that’s what is going to make this economy recover.”