Over 20, 000 ghost workers have been uncovered within the Nigeria Police Force following investigation by a private consulting firm engaged by the Ministry of Police Affairs, even as over N6billion has been recovered.The Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, made this disclosure at a meeting with Police Pay Officers, officers in charge of Mechanised Salary Section (MSS), and Accountants yesterday at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
Addressing the meeting which he said was necessitated by “serious fraud in payment of police salaries and allowances, as well as ghost workers in the police”, Ringim said that bank officials and some police officers, as well as staff of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation were conniving to steal the force’s fund.
According to him, this revelation followed engagement of a consulting firm by the Ministry of Police Affairs following the decentralisation of police salary points in September to set up the e-payment platform for the force.
Records, he said, had shown that N6billion that would have been otherwise stolen has been recovered within three months, noting that some states were found to have been flaunting the e-payment order.
The police force, he said, had been inundated with complaints of disparity in salaries of officers on the same rank in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), undue delay of salaries, pointing out that the police force was determined to identify and bring such disparity to the fore.
Speaking further, the police boss said that a special task force set up to ensure thorough investigation of salaries had found that salaries were continuously paid into some particular accounts, even as multiple payments were made in same accounts, among others.
Police paymasters, officers in charge of MSS, accountants, as well as Divisional Police Officers, Ringim said, have been accused in the conspiracy. He, however, assured that his administration would stamp out such practice completely by ensuring they are dismissed.
Speaking on behalf of the consultants, Bayo Adeyemo, who put the staff role at 275, 000 as at last month, as against 297, 000 at inception of the firms work, said there were a lot of issues for the firm to adjust and readjust in the course of setting up the e-payment platform.
This, he said, had led to the firm meeting with police pay officers of the different states on the issue of repeated names in single account, as well as multiple payments of salaries which he said was dropping, but had been very high on inception.
Commissioner of Police, Ali Ahmed, who is in charge of the investigation disclosed that police pay officers in Abia State were being questioned over discrepancies discovered by detectives, especially as it concerns over 20 officers salaries being paid into the same account.
This, he said, was fraudulent, assuring of the commitment of the taskforce in uncovering the fraud in other commands, even as he warned against trying to bribe members of the taskforce as it would be visited with greater sanction.
It would be recalled that some pay officers had been arrested for their alleged involvement in sharp practices in the preparation of vouchers meant for the payment of the recent increment in salaries and allowances for the police by the Federal Government.