Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, on Tuesday, announced that the Federal Government had uncovered 1,618 ‘ghost workers’ in the federal civil service with fake letters of employment.

Yemi-Esan who made the disclosure at a press conference in Abuja, said the discovery was made through the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), during a recent review.

She told journalists that her office, through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), detected the federal workers with fake and illegal letters of employment, following a verification of 69,854 officers across the core Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government in the 36 States of the Federation and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

She noted that the affected workers have been suspended from the IPPIS platform and have been handed over to ICPC for proper investigation and prosecution

As you are aware, prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS, the system was bedeviled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ghost workers.

Consequent upon the identified loopholes in the IPPIS, the Office introduced control mechanisms, notable among others, was the inauguration of a Committee on Enrolment of Newly Recruited Civil Servants on the 1st of March, 2021.

“Hence, this and other initiatives in accelerating the roll-out of the HR Module of the IPPIS, has brought about the following:

“Detection of 1,618 fake/illegal employment letters;

“Continuous suspension of Officers from the IPPIS platform for not uploading their records;

“Verification of 69,854 officers across the core MDAs in FCT and the six (6) geo-political zones.

“In our investigation, we have found out these workers that were not employed at all, who have found their way into the civil service,” she added