Heads to roll in Benue as ‘clique’ feeds fat on dead teachers’ salaries

The recent discovery of a total of 256 dead teachers on the payroll of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has been lauded by the authorities as it has helped in blocking financial leakages. For long, sharp practices had persisted at the board with many employee verification exercises said to have failed to detect […]

The recent discovery of a total of 256 dead teachers on the payroll of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) has been lauded by the authorities as it has helped in blocking financial leakages.

For long, sharp practices had persisted at the board with many employee verification exercises said to have failed to detect phony entries and dead personnel on the teachers register, among other things at the board.

But for the ongoing sanitization exercise under a new helmsman which unearthed the 256 deceased teachers allegedly still on its payroll, the board would have continued to lose needed funds at the detriment of genuine employees.

Acting SUBEB Chairman Matthew Mnyam, who disclosed the detection of the dead employees who were still been paid salaries, at a press conference in Makurdi, added that the names of ghost workers have been removed from the payroll.

There were names of retired personnel also on the payroll whose salaries were supposedly released alongside legitimate employees.

“256 deceased staff on pay roll have been removed from the PVC. We have also removed others who retired but were still on the payroll receiving salary,” he said.

Mnyam also disclosed that as part of the sanitation exercise at the board, four of its directors have been sent on three months’ compulsory leave to pave way for the board to properly look into their various matters. Those responsible will have themselves to blame, he assured.

He added that one official of the board in charge of salaries who was caught reinstating some names on the payroll was suspended alongside another staff who was transferred out of the board for being unable to give account of the assignment given to him.

“We have sanitised the board and asked some people to go because they were not adding value to the system. My coming here (board) is not to probe but to sanitise the board. I removed the person in charge of stores because he refused to discharge his duties as a store officer,” Mnyam said.

The SUBEB chairman further said the board would soon clampdown on local government executive secretaries that were performing below average, just as he warned headmasters who were charging parents various amounts of money before enrolling their children to desist or face sanctions. He said the board, which was embarking on school enrolment drive, would not view such acts lightly.

He also announced the setting up of a committee to draw up a list of teachers that are due to retire to create room for new and younger ones to come on board, adding that more routine screening exercises would take place to ensure real teachers are those who collect salaries at the end of the month.

Other measures to check the loophole, Mnyam said, include the immediate closure of the Remita (consultancy) as well as the previous payroll and opening of a new one.

Also, plan is underway, beginning from the new academic session, to take physical statistics of teachers to keep a tab on the activities of saboteurs.

Similarly, the SUBEB head said the board was aware that fake schools also exist but tracking them had been a bit difficult, nevertheless, “we have made plans to catch them.”

An official of the SUBEB, however told our correspondent that accounting irregularities occurred because some workers in the system deliberately siphoned millions of naira in fake employees’ salaries.

He said people die every day and that the payment being done electronically may not detect such until physical screening exercise is carried out such as the one that unearthed the dead still on the payroll.

Some teachers who spoke to our correspondent on anonymity, said, the anomaly has been in existence and was fuelled by a ‘clique that thought they were untouchable’ until the arrival of Mnyam who stirred the tide and uncovered the unhealthy development.

The teachers alleged that the clique fed fat on dead and fake workers’ salaries and had in the past cunningly thwarted exercises to uncover their dirty deals.

“This set of people at the board will never go on leave too,” one of the teachers said.

Consequent upon the development, Governor Samuel Ortom of the state, at an event, disclosed that the state was able to save N300 million as a result of the discovery and erasure of dead teachers names from the payroll.

To this end, the governor announced the intention of his administration to employ over 5,000 primary school teachers before the end of 2019.