Kogi Discovers 3,303 Ghost Teachers, N1.5billion Annual Over-Payment

Kogi State Government said it had discovered 3,303 ghost teachers after the screening exercise in the last three months

While submitting the report, the Chairman of the Primary School Committee and the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Ndamodu Ali, told Governor Idris Wada that there was a little delay during the exercise in view of the enormous task in capturing the biometric data of primary school teachers in 21 local government areas.

Barr Ndamodu Ali

Ali explained that at the end of exercise, 3,303 ghost teachers were discovered, adding that before the exercise at the end of May the number of teachers in the government’s payroll was 27,639 against the 24,353 that presented themselves for data capturing exercise.

The committee chairman disclosed that there was an overpayment of N129 million every month, amounting to over N1.5 billion a year.

He, therefore, directed the State Basic Education Board to release N1.190 billion as benchmark for the payment of the teachers’ salary.

The committee disclosed that over 20 per cent of the teachers could not speak English, adding that the teachers were recruited indiscriminately.

But the government assured the public primary school teachers that they would soon enjoy minimum wage like other civil servants in the state.

Wada, who disclosed this while receiving the report on the primary school teachers screening exercise embarked upon to ascertain the actual number of teachers and the monthly wage bill, said his administration was committed to the welfare of the teachers.

The governor commended members of the committee for the job well done, saying that the submission of the report was timely to enable the school children as well as teachers return to school as soon as possible.

He pointed out that after the implementation committee submits its report, the authentic teachers would enjoy the 18,000 minimum wage.

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