Payroll Fraud: Gombe Government approves N1.49bn for biometric equipment

The Gombe State Government has approved one billion, 499 million, eight hundred and four thousand and 455 naira and 65 kobo (N1.49bn) for the procurement of biometric equipment for the Gombe State Integrated Payroll, Payment Gateway and Human Resource Management Information System.

Speaking after the Executive Council Meeting in Gombe, the Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, Malam Muhammad Gambo Magaji, said the system would help reduce or eliminate payroll fraud, increase transparency in the payment of salaries and pensions to deserving pensioners and help manage the human resources in the state and local governments of the state.

Malam Magaji said the sum approved would include the supply of the biometric machines, the installation, and warranty of five years to maintain those machines and ensure they work adequately for the purpose for which they were procured.

 “What we have discovered is that we have so many who are on the payroll but don’t come to work. So, if you do a verification exercise, you find out that everybody comes for the verification exercise. But after the verification, you find out that very few or a certain percentage of workers do not come to work. So, this means that they are only around for verification but do not attend work,” Malam Magaji said.

He said the system had features that would check excesses of civil service, by identifying and authenticating one’s physical features and enhance regular attendance of office.

“It means that, if you don’t come to work, the system automatically identifies that you have not come to work and it will record in the database that is saved in the cloud. And that is assessed by the consultants and the report is presented for use at the end of every month to ensure that people who turn up for work are paid and those who don’t, naturally are not workers,” Malam Magaji said.

He said a pilot exercise was conducted for pensioners and it was discovered that about 600 pensioners did not turn up, thereby saving the state about 80 million naira and that a similar pilot test was conducted for Gombe Local Government and 23 million naira was saved from the staff who did not turn up for work.

“It’s a double-edged sword. We are all aware that spent about 80% to 90% of our earnings for both the state IGR and the Federal Government Statutory Allocation in the payment of salaries and pensions to our staff. And you know people who have retired. And if we continue to pay that huge amount of money, it means that only 10 to 15% is left for other services to be provided for the other people in Gombe State,” Malam Magaji said.

He said it was necessary to clean up the civil service, by not paying people who do not come to work but earn salaries.

According to him, the system will enable the state government to save more money for other services, as well as give room for others to be gainfully employed into the service, especially the teeming youths in the state.

In the meantime, following non-payment of water bills by consumers in the state capital, Gombe the Gombe State Executive Council had also decided to soon take some drastic measures on water supply.

The Commissioner of Water Resources, Malam. Yahaya Mijinyawa, said this had become necessary, following the poor performance of the Gombe State Water Board generating revenue and efficient water distribution.

“The Government pays one billion naira as annual Contract fee to the contractors doing the maintenance and operations of the treatment plant. There are other bills that follow. Light Bills, payment of salaries to the staff of Water Board, other charges and other maintenance charges are there, but for the operation and maintenance, when this government came on board, because of the backlog of debts that we inherited, the government was 250 million naira, to the contractor monthly for water to be supplied to the city,” said Malam Mijinyawa.

He said the issue was further compounded by the advent of Covid-19, which plunged the state into some economic crises, thereby making the government reduce the payment rate to 100 million naira monthly.

He, however, said despite the huge investment in the sector, revenue generation had been very poor.

Consequently, he said the council, concerned and worried about the development had decided that with no serious changes in the near future, some drastic measure would be taken to enhance substantial revenue generation in the sector.

The Gome State Commissioner for Water Resources, therefore, called on residents of Gombe State to play their own part in paying up water bills to sustain the services rendered in the sector.

He said agencies under the ministry had been directed to set up taskforces in the Water Board, for debt recovery, for prompt payment at the end of every month, while metering was being considered as another option for enhanced revenue generation in the sector.

According to the Commissioner of Water Resources, the present charges for water rate are extremely low, saying measures have been taken to review the rate.

He said at the inception of the Governor Yahaya Administration was to carry out the general assessment of the water situation in the state, which involved the use of consultants who conducted enumeration, saying the result showed a wide gap that needed to be filled.

Malam Mijinyawa said part of the efforts by the state government was reaching out to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, which had qualified the state for the World Bank Assisted programme, the Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene, WASH, where 7 states would participate.

“And we have done everything possible to ensure that Gombe State qualifies to participate in that programme. And that programme will aim at enhancing the water supply not only within the city but also in the other local government areas. We have done the assessment we have submitted to the World Bank and in no distant time, by the Grace of God, we will see intervention coming and then we will do the expansion programme widely,” he said.  

Nnenna.O