Enugu govt uncovers 2,640 ghost names, deceased pensioners on payroll

The Enugu State Government said it had uncovered 2,640 ghost names and deceased pensioners on its payroll.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Chidiebere Onyia, disclosed this on Sunday in Enugu.

Mr Onyia, a professor, said the Pension Verification Authority made the discovery during a recent verification exercise of pensioners in the state.

‘Over 7000 pensioners receive payments’

The SSG also announced that the state government has commenced payment of pensions to local government retirees in the state.

He explained that the payment was in line with the promise of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to clear outstanding pensions and gratuities inherited by his administration.

Mr Onyia said that over 7000 local government pensioners had since received their pensions for August.

The SSG stressed that payment of the pensioners followed the governor’s approval of the recommendations of the Local Government Pensioners Biometric Verification Committee, which conducted the verification exercise.

“This will improve our people’s standard of living, raise purchasing power and promote strong and sustainable economic growth in the state,” he said.

He added that, in July, a total of 7109 local government pensioners received their monthly payments, totalling about N500 million.

Mr Onyia said the 7109 pensioners included 989 newly registered entrants who retired between April 2022 and April 2024 but were not accommodated in the pension scheme.

Fraud in the pension system

The SSG expressed disappointment that there was high-level fraud in the state’s pensions system.

He said the record provided by the Local Government Pensions Board indicated that the state had been paying over 8760 local government retirees as of April 2024 against the 7109 verified pensioners.

Mr Onyia restated the state government’s commitment to clear all arrears and stressed that the payment mode adopted by the government would guarantee that backlogs were phased out within the timeline set out by the government.

“This administration will continue to support our citizens, particularly our senior citizens who dedicated their time and energy serving the state.

“We will soon phase out all arrears inherited by the administration,” he said.

The SSG said the state government was reforming the ppensionsystem by making strong institutional policies that can prevent corrupt people from finding their way into the scheme.

“We have been able to digitalise the institution with measures that would make every transaction and payment transparent, accountable and traceable,” he added.