Participants at the nominal payroll interaction
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
In its resolve to establish a standardized nominal pay roll in order to eradicate the unending problem of ghost workers in the its civil service, Bauchi State Government organized an interaction with Chairmen, Directors of Primary Health Care and Education Secretaries of the 20 Local Government Areas of the state on new salary administration in the state.
While Speaking at the commencement of the interactive session held at the Banquet Hall, Government House, Bauchi on Tuesday, the Chairman of Cabinet Committee on new payroll administration, Alhaji Umaru Sanda Adamu solicited for the cooperation of the participants to enable the present administration establish a clean nominal and payroll in the state.
Adamu who is the State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development said that the state government is determined to ensure that, salary/pension malpractices in Bauchi State Public Service that defied any solution by past administrations are brought to a conclusive end.
According to him, every officer assigned the responsibility of sanitizing the system must therefore brace-up and do the needful in order to avoid unpleasant consequences.
Adamu also said that as heads of their respective Local Governments, the participants are expected to fish out ghost workers as any savings made will give government the latitude to employ more needed staff in critical departments.
The Commissioner explained that, “The Committee that is addressing you today is the Cabinet Committee which is under my Chairmanship. This Committee is working very closely with the consultants that Government engaged to facilitate this noble cause.”
He added that, “The Government had formed two committees to handle sanitizing both the Nominal and Payrolls of the 20 Local Governments considering the fact that preliminary assessment of the state workforce shows that, huge numbers of workers on government payroll at both State and Local Governments could not be justified as bonafide workers.”
Adamu also said that the nominal rolls submitted by the 20 Local Government Areas fell short of expectation as the submissions were fraught with serious errors, some of which appeared willfully done and not in consonance with the template given.
The Chairman of the Cabinet Committee further said that this therefore seriously accounted for the delays experienced in salary and pension payments in the past three to four months and assured that the committee will not hesitate to recommend the stoppage of payment of salaries of Local Government Areas that fail to provide correct and updated nominal rolls.
Adamu said the nominal roll must drive the payroll for government to succeed in the current effort to rid the system of fraudulent practices so as to free resources for manpower development and other socio-economic needs of the state.
On the current status of payment of salaries and pensions as at 31st of December of 2020, the Chairman of the Cabinet committee said at the state level, out of 30,174 staff, a total of 29,638 were cleared and paid salaries while 64 staff failed transactions, 159 staff not in the nominal roll, 211 staff were blocked due to different payroll infractions.
He said at the pension level, out of 9,491 pensioners, a total of 9,352 were paid while 46 and 15 were on failed transaction due to invalid accounts and blocked due to different payroll infractions.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Abdulrazaq Nuhu Zaki said pledged the readiness of his Ministry to work with critical stakeholders at local levels to address challenges affecting the smooth payment of salaries and pensions.
The State Head of Service, Aliyu Jibo said a portal has been opened for capturing all employees’ data using the self-service mechanism in which the system is expected to bring out actual bio-data of each employee using specific template.
