Expdonaloaded News; el-Rufai uncovers N1.3bn pension fraud

KADUNA State Gov­ernment has uncovered a pension racket which allegedly siphons N1.3 billion from the state an­nually, Samuel Aruwan, spokesperson to Governor Nasir el-Rufai said this in a statement yesterday.Aruwan said the discov­ery was revealed during the verification exercise of pensioners in the state which was conducted re­cently.


“The report from the verification exercise was presented to the state ex­ecutive council yesterday and it showed that 2,484 ghost pensioners were identified and removed from the pension payroll.
“Another set of 1,404 were classified as probable ghost pensioners because while they managed to get verified, they curiously failed to pick their pension cheques.
“In July 2015, the total pension payroll from the state and local govern­ments stood at 18,265. It cost the state government N543,771,967.43 monthly to pay the pensioners. But at the end of the biometric verification exercise, only 15,781 pensioners were verified on the payroll.
“As many as 2,484 sup­posed pensioners did not show up at all. Of 15,781 pensioners that were veri­fied, 1,404 pensioners did not collect their cheques, and they are being treated as probable ghosts.
“The Kaduna State Executive Council has ordered further investi­gations into the precise identities of the syndicate behind the pension scam,” he said.