More than 23,306 federal civil servants are suspected of defrauding the government of millions of naira every month through an organised salary fraud, according to a panel probing salary payments in the federal ministries and departments.
The number of fraudulent accounts were detected from of 312,306 civil servants, whose bank accounts have so far been checked through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform.
The panel has found sufficient evidence thanks to the recently activated Bank Verification Numbers all manners of fraudulent dealings in salary payments, including multiple accounts, payments to ‘ghost’ workers and sheer manipulation of records.
Significantly, the panel found that some banks are also involved in the deal and would also be called to answer questions on the huge scam.
It was learnt that the Federal Government has placed some of the banks under watch for their roles in the salary scam after the probe panel was said to have discovered that some of the inactive accounts were domiciled in a particular branch of a bank.
It was learnt that over 300 accounts of some civil servants were opened on the same day and all of them have become dormant.
The government already plans to delete 23,306 of such names names from the Federal Government’s payroll.
Sources claimed that some of the affected have tendered their resignation letters to pre-empt dismissal from service and prosecution.
The source claimed that with the adoption of the BVN for salary payment, the Federal Ministry of Finance has so far checked the details of about 312,000 civil servants— a development said to have led to the discovery of many irregularities in salary payment.
“Out of the accounts of about 312,000 civil servants processed so far, the ministry was said to have uncovered irregularities in the account of about 23,306 of them, who were suspected to have been collecting double salary.
“These indicted individuals are in two categories. In the first group, we found out that the names of some civil servants, whose salaries are being processed, are different from the names on the accounts where their salaries are paid. What this means is either those in this category are drawing salary from two sources (which could be different agencies), or they are ghost workers,” the source said.
The source added that the probe also showed that salaries were being paid to some inactive accounts, thus raising the suspicion that government was merely making payment to ghost workers.
The Rainbow could not immediately reach the The Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media Matters, Mr. Festus Akanbi.
