By DAYO JOHNSON

AKURE — ONDO State government, yesterday, said that it embarked on verification of workers across the 18 council areas because the wage bill of the councils were inflated and too much for government to bear.

The Administrative Secretary of the State Local Government Service Commission, Mrs. Odunayo Ketiku, gave the clarification following criticism that greeted the exercise and the delay in payment of workers’ salaries.

Ketiku said aside this, the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, had been inundated with complains from the local government workers themselves that the wage bill was being padded.

The Administrative Secretary  said the screening, which led to daunting discoveries, was however, not done to witch-hunt people or force them out of service.

According to her, in the course of the screening, it was discovered that there was no basic data on local government workers in the state.