The Kano State government has disclosed that 240 of its employees are receiving double payments while 217 others are operating under the same Bank Verification Number (BVN).
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Dr Sulaiman Wali Sani, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Civil Service Matters and Chairman of the State Coordinating Committee, said the discovery followed a biometric verification exercise and the work of two standing committees – one on state payroll and another on local government payroll.
Sani, who represented the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) at the briefing, said the revelations were part of ongoing efforts to sanitise the state’s civil service and fulfill Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s campaign promise of ensuring prompt and full payment of workers’ entitlements.
“Inherited shortcomings in the payroll system have continued to disturb the government. We discovered that 240 employees are drawing double salaries while 217 individuals are operating under the same BVN, suggesting possible cases of ghost workers or identity manipulation,” Sani said.
He added that a total of 1,335 workers had also failed to report for verification for over six months, raising further concerns about the authenticity of many names on the government’s payroll.
In his remarks, Alhaji Umar Idi, Chairman of the Local Government Standing Committee, revealed that a recent audit uncovered 247 questionable names on local government and primary healthcare payrolls, including retirees, deceased persons, and cases of unauthorised staff elongation.
“Out of these 247 workers, only eight appeared before the committee to confirm their employment status. The remaining 239 names have been flagged for deletion, saving the government a total of N27,824,395 monthly,” he explained.
Dr Sani emphasised that the government’s motive was not punitive but corrective, aiming to ensure that genuine workers and pensioners continue to receive their full salaries and entitlements without arbitrary deductions.
He added that with the payroll cleansing exercise, workers should expect even more transparent and efficient salary payments.
