By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Benue State Government has blamed high-profile civil servants for being behind the menace of salary padding, ghost workers syndrome, double dipping and inflation of the state’s wage bill.

Recall that the state government had in a recent statement disclosed that over 2,500 ghost workers were discovered on its payroll at the end of the first phase of screening carried out by the administration.

The Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to the Governor, Mr. Tersoo Kula who spoke Friday when he played host to members of the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Benue State Council, said the discoveries during the screening exercise were alarming.

He said there were instances where people existed on the payroll of the government from where they drew huge salaries monthly.

According to him, “At the end of the first phase of screening carried out by the government, over 2,500 ghost workers were discovered on the payroll. These are people who exist only on the Payment Vouchers, PVs.

“Some were seen drawing salaries from different Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of government. Their names are on the PVs of these different MDAs.

“The people in the civil service are the ones perpetrating this. These are people who collect millions of Naira when their salaries are paid.

“These are the set of people who may come out to claim that they have not been paid so far. But I can assure you that Governor Hyacinth Alia is not ruling out the possibility of handing this group of persons to anti-graft agencies.”

The CPS who disclosed that the government would soon embark on the next phase of the screening to totally sanitise the system, noted that “Governor Alia has come as a reformist and you know that a reformist has no friend.

“And in the process of reforming the system, people might go through some initial difficulties but all that would disappear in no time and everyone would enjoy and be happier for it.”

Mr. Kula assured that the administration was determined to stem insecurity in the state with the collaboration of traditional rulers saying the government was putting measures in place to resuscitate community meetings in various communities across the state where the leaders and the people would take full charge of what happens in their localities and where necessary draw the attention of security agencies to suspicious activities.

He stated that the government was not unaware of the critical role Journalists play in society assuring a smooth working relationship with media practitioners in the state.

Earlier leader of the delegation and Chairman of the Chapel, Mr. Emmanuel Antswem said the group was in the office to congratulate the new CPS as a former Chairman of the Chapel and to equally introduce its new leadership to him.

He urged the CPS to always avail himself to the media to enable them to get clarifications and confirmations on issues that concern the policies of the Governor.