The Kano State Government has uncovered significant irregularities in its civil service payroll, including 240 employees receiving double salaries and 217 others sharing the same Bank Verification Number.
Special Adviser to Governor Abba Yusuf, on Civil Service Matters and Chairman of the State Coordinating Committee, Dr. Sulaiman Sani, revealed the findings during a press briefing in Kano on Sunday.
Sani, representing the Secretary to the State Government, Umar Ibrahim, said the anomalies were discovered during a biometric verification exercise aimed at sanitising the civil service.
The inherited shortcomings in the payroll system have continued to disturb the government. We discovered that 240 employees are drawing double salaries, while 217 individuals share the same BVN,” Sani stated.
He further disclosed that 1,335 employees had not reported for verification for over six months, raising further concerns about the authenticity of many names on the government’s payroll.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Local Government Payroll Standing Committee, Alhaji Umar Idi, said an audit exercise had uncovered 247 questionable names on the local government and primary healthcare payrolls.
Idi explained that only eight out of the 247 individuals appeared before the committee to verify their employment status.
He said the removal of the remaining 239 names from the payroll had resulted in a monthly saving of N27.8m, which would now be returned to the state and local governments’ joint account.
Sani emphasised that the ongoing exercise was not punitive but rather aimed at ensuring that genuine workers and pensioners received their full entitlements without arbitrary deductions.
He also recalled that since the assumption of office by Governor Yusuf, the administration had prioritised the prompt payment of salaries and eliminated informal deductions from workers’ wages.
The payroll cleansing will enhance transparency and efficiency in salary administration,” Sani said, adding that the government would continue collaborating with stakeholders to address all anomalies and restore credibility to the civil service.
