The Public Complaints Commission says it has uncovered four suspected cases of ghost workers in its Anambra office.
The Commissioner at the PCC in Anambra, Samben Nwosu, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Awka that the cases of suspected ghost staff were discovered during a physical verification of staff of the commission.
According to him, four employees of the commission posted to its office in Anambra were discovered to have failed to report four years after their posting.
Nwosu, who did not disclose the identity of the affected persons, said the verification was aimed at ensuring that no fictitious names were on the payroll as well as determine its manpower status.
He said the exercise, which covered no fewer than 50 of its employees, included those at the state office in Awka and those at the eight local government offices.
He said: “In furtherance to the directive of the Chief Commissioner for PCC, Chief Chille Igbaguwa, all states offices were directed to physically verify the staff of the commission to ensure that they are Nigerians.
“It was to also enable check ghost workers, discover delayed or denied promotions; all in the interest of the staff and Nigeria generally.
“We want to know our staff at the state and local government offices.
“There were four staff (names withheld) who were posted here four years ago and up till now, the state director confirmed that they have not reported; this is what this exercise is meant to uncover.
“These people will be investigated and appropriate actions will be taken, we will also know if they have been receiving salaries during this period.”
On the activities of the commission in the past nine months, Nwosu said it had received about 2, 500 complaints and disposed of more than 1, 500 of them, while others were still pending.
The commissioner said there was need for more staff to cover the area offices where the bulk of the cases emanate from as they were closer to the people.
He said the commission would partner with the judiciary in Anambra to work out a more robust Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism to nip cases of disputes in the bud and reduce litigations.
Nwosu said: “We want to see people treat civil matter amicably without going to the law courts; cost of litigation is high, so we want to make people appreciate other amicable ways of handling disputes.’’
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