Bayelsa uncovers ‘612 ghost teachers’ on payroll

A committee set up by the Bayelsa government to review the primary education sector says it has uncovered over 600 “ghost teachers” in the state.

Timipre Seipulou, chairman of the Bayelsa committee on review of grade level, steps of local government, and primary school staff, stated this on Monday while presenting a report at the government house.

The 33-member committee was set up by the Bayelsa state government in April.

Seipulou said the committee reviewed a total of 14,258 cases in the various LGAs, comprising 7,207 primary school teachers, 5,893 council staff and 1,189 health workers.

He said a staff verification exercise was carried out using the March 2021 payroll template and irregularities were discovered.

According to him, out of 7,207 primary school staff, 612 were confirmed as ghost teachers by school headmasters.

The chairman said 573 workers were not on the payroll, but were said to be physically present in the schools, while the names of 10 dead persons and 13 retired staff were discovered.

He said the committee detected cases of irregular progression, improper updating of files, indiscriminate award of special promotions, among other issues.

The committee asked that a special team be set up to monitor cases of dead or retired staff, as well as those who are not in schools but appear on the government payroll.

It also advised the government to use the April 2021 payroll, grade levels and steps reports as a basis for conducting physical verification by capturing the biometrics of all workers.

“Government should review the issue of health workers conversion from the consolidated public service salary structure (CONPSS) to consolidated health salary structure (CONHESS) and correct cases of staff who go to work but whose names are not on the payroll,” the committee added.