₦airaland Forum

GHOSTWORKERS: HOW DO THEY DO IT? I haven’t had time to do a thread for some time and don’t have enough time to do a long one this morning. I will, therefore, just signpost the different levels of sophistication in the ghost worker scam that has been with us for years. Thread...

First, definitions. The term “Ghost worker” is loosely used to refer to a body of scams. Most people use it to mean people that exist on the payroll, for whom salaries are drawn monthly but who do not exist physically. Usually, if you do a verification, they won’t show up.

This is the very basic (beginners) level. Before computerized payroll systems in the public service from around 2003, people had a field day. Army, Police, Universities, Hospitals, Civil Servants, etc. It was estimated that each senior officer was “running” 40 ghost workers.

If you multiply 40 ghost workers just by the minimum wage, you can get an idea of what each “runner “was getting. Some very senior officers were having 100s of ghost workers run for them. It was a perk of office; a source of weekend money or paying political thugs or scholarships

Everything was manual. Many of the Ogas had ghost workers. Without a computerised payroll system, you couldn’t tell who created the ghost worker in the payroll. All signatures were forged. Nobody checked. Without BVN, you couldn’t tell who was collecting the money every month.

There are other scams that I won’t go detail about here. Some people collect loans from government and the records simply disappear. They never pay back. Some should be paid on Level 10 but are being paid on Level 14. Some should be on Level 10, Step 1 but are paid on Step 3.

Computerised payroll systems like IPPIS mean that the worker must appear in person, with their credentials and have their biometrics taken. In the first few years of deploying it, it removed 65,000 ghost workers from the payroll and saved more than $1 billion. Dollars o.

Government didn’t really trust civil servants to do the biometric capture and decided to have private sector providers do it. Workers in the private sector companies are also Nigerians. They started inserting ghost workers into the computerised system for themselves or for a fee.

The Head of Service will start wondering why there is a discrepancy between the nominal toll and the payroll. Because it is computerised, you can at least tell who inserted the name and fire or prosecute them. You could call this the “Professional Level” of ghost worker creation.

When BVN came, it exposed instances where multiple salaries were going to the same back account. One public servant was collecting 20 salaries. Many simply abandoned the bank accounts, rather than present themselves for BVN or allow their BVN to be linked to the ghost workers.

Government then moved to ensure that the private sector providers cannot just add a name that doesn’t exist. They drew the link all the way from appointment to deployment to payroll. Each stage had to be signed off by the right person, with a traceable digital key.

This makes it more difficult but not impossible to compromise, especially where there is collusion. In the civil service, if the Civil Service Commission, Head of Service and Accountant General come together, they can compromise the system. Advanced Level: unlikely but possible.

In agencies & parastatals and places like universities where there is no central HR controller like the Head of Service, you can still be practicing Beginner-Level ghost worker runs if you don’t have a computerised payroll system linked to other systems like nominal roll and BVN.

You simply get your monthly release as a block grant from the Government Integrated Financial Information System (GIFMIS) and do what you want. GIFMIS doesn’t require biometric capture like IPPIS. It can’t capture people collecting multiple salaries or being paid at wrong levels.

Recently, the Head of Service announced that a number of officers had discrepancies in the employment records. She was able to do that through computerization of records. I hope you can begin to see why some people will fight systems like IPPIS linked to BVN to the death. End!

Klinee:
Oga shot up, am from her senatorial zone what exactly is that her footprint that stand her out as you assume!
She is just Nigeria politicians who only revolve around themselves alone.
Her senatorial zone remain the most poorest in terms federal infrastructural structures and development in anambra.
What proactive effort has she taken to attract all these to anambra north

akpunda86:
Says who bros.you know how much she stole for a project never doneThe aviation school for fed poly oko that was never done.What do u know bros.she is a branded criminal daughter of a prince.Just sharing a token of what was stolen

Be guided bros

akpunda86:
Just a quater of our stolen funds from constituency projects .all this donations from our senators are the constituency projects for this year.And our people hailing them.wait till they start telling you their achievements.
Well it is in a way better than invisible constituency projects this years own STOMACH CONSTITUENCY PROJECT.
BRAVO CRIMINAL SENATORS.

Jeffyblaq:
Congratulations folks!
Nigerian politicians and her gullible folks!.



What happen to the word "teach a man how to fish rather than giving him fishes..

Una useless gesture go soon end and they all go back to d same status quo.

Nonsense meaning " No sense in it"!!

Nodogragra4me:
Hope you know her zone?
To subsidise your ignorance , she is from the same zone as the current Governor of the state.

Right now the contenders are Soludo , Ozigbo Valentine , Maduka from the US

Top1gun:
When will your mothers be ask to lift the yams on their head ? Na that pix I Wan see.

EBMedia:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thecable.ng/fg-cant-share-donated-funds-to-nigerians-says-lai/amp

Avalancheman:
Brown roofs everywhere...

kiyosaki1:
The owner of this forum should try and checkmate the activities or reduce their activities , so as to give nairaland the neutrality it rightly deserves.
Most of us had been on this forum for a long time and we cannot stand aloof seen all these paid wolves taken over the sanity of nairaland

Baamm:
Baba sneaking back into Abuja a few hours later

itswellohvic:
Some times am forced to ask these questions, what makes our security agencies in Nigeria professionals? Always disclosing there information to the publics before caring out an attack Did Chad announced their intention to the public before attacking Bk ? The answer is no and there was huge results, so why is Nigerian own difference. Pls for once action speaks louder than voice. Act fast and leave unnecessary publications for now.

Jaqenhghar:
The clown is proba ly speaking from Abuja..... or Dubai

abeggnow:
what I said is fact. Nigerian military was at its zenith in the 80s
. Abacha started the killing of the army and democracy via Nigerian politicians buried it. The corrupted the military and killed any form of professionalism. So what we have now is more s militia , a highly educated militia.

IDnoble1:
No mind am,He is only avoiding ABJ because of high cases of COVID-19 there

Glink2018:
[i][/i]

Our government is not serious about fighting insurgency. Chad that has a GDP of 4 billion compared to Nigeria that has the GPD of 14 billion. Naija is a joke.