Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State on Tuesday said the state government loses about N24 billion annually to the activities of payroll fraudsters.
This was contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, in Yenagoa.
The statement described the activities of the fraudsters as “massive problem”.
The statement also said the administration, in the last four years, had paid over N100 billion on bonds and overpayment incurred by his predecessors.
It said about N1.3 billion went for bond deductions, while more than N1 billion was deducted as overpayments, amounting to about N2.5 billion monthly.
Dickson said: “We have discovered that there have been a cabal over the years who have been frustrating the efforts of government in sanitising the payroll of its workforce.
“The fraudsters perfect their act through connivance with some financial institutions in the state.
“My administration is determined to sanitise the payroll of the state workforce; we will not relent to clean up the payroll.”
It stated that the government would device a system to control salary payments.
“We have directed all heads of ministries, departments, agencies and school principals to prepare nominal rolls and payroll vouchers,” Dickson added.