Abia begins physical staff audit to fish out ‘ghost’ workers

In a bid to fish out ghost workers in the Abia State Public Service and save cost of governance, the state government has kicked off physical verification/audit and human resource management exercise of the workforce.

Joy Maduka, the state Acting Head of Service, while flagging of the event, said the exercise was not meant to witch hunt any civil servant but to better the lots of civil servants in the state.

She noted that since the inception of Governor Alex Otti’s administration on May, 29, 2023, there have been a focused action to streamline the activities in Abia Public Service with a view to better the lots of Abia workers and enhance efficient and effective service delivery.

“With this exercise it is strongly believed that the Abia Public Service would be purged of some negative vices such as ghost workers syndrome and genuine workers have all the dividends of the service, which include regular payment of salaries and other fringe benefits, prompt and regular payment of leave allowances, regular promotions, among others,” the HoS said.

She enjoined all public servants in the state to avail themselves of the opportunity and present themselves for the verification exercise as they would not regret doing so.

Also speaking during the event, Chuka Agomuo, chairman of the Verification Exercise, earlier in his remarks disclosed that the exercise was being carried out to check corruption in the service.

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He said that the on-line process had already been completed before the physical aspect of the exercise.
He hinted that the exercise is taking place simultaneously in all the 17 Local Government Areas of the state and would last for two wees.
“If you have issues with your on-line verification, it will be rectified. The people to verify what you have uploaded are here,” Agomuo assured.

Joseph Bamidele, manager of Appmart Integrted Services, the firm handling the exercise, said physical verification entails that workers would equally appear with their and their faces captured in the system.

“With this, payment will be made easy. Once you are captured, you are pay rolled and you will be getting your salary with ease,” Bamidele said.