George Okoh in Makurdi
The Executive Secretary, Benue State Teaching Service Board (TSB), Dr. Frank Kyungun, has disclosed that the board uncovered 18 dead teacher among 433 ghost workers on the payroll of the state government after verification of 4,473 staff across the three senatorial zones of the state.
He stated further that the committee also uncovered 70 retired staff and 193 redeployed staff among other irregularities on the payroll, who were accordingly expunged Also, he identified challenges confronting the board to include lack of utility vehicles and overhead among others, and solicited government’s intervention
Kyungun made this known while presenting the report of the board screening of teachers in its payroll to the state Governor, Samuel Ortom, in Makurdi yesterday.
In his response, Ortom constituted a committee to immediately implement the screening report on the actual workforce of the state board.
The governor announced the committee headed by the state Commissioner for Education, Professor Dennis Ityavyar.
He stated that those who had milked the board through ghost workers must be identified and prosecuted, even as he directed that the ghost names be immediately deleted from the payment voucher.
Ortom also charged the TSB board to ensure that the names to be deleted do not find their way back on the payroll.
Other members of the implementation committee constituted by the governor included representative of the Head of Service, representatives each from Commissioner for Finance, office of the Accountant General, Attorney General and Commissioner for justice, while the Executive Secretary of TSB will serve as secretary of the implementation committee.
