The Zamfara state Commissioner for Finance, Rabiu Garba has dispelled the rumour on social media that the deputy governor of the state, Mahdi Ali-Gusau gets double salary from the state government.
The commissioner also said he confronted the deputy governor over the allegations but he denied the speculations and submitted self for further scrutiny to prove his innocence.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Rabiu Garba, disclosed at a news conference in Gusau.
He also revealed that the government has uncovered a 119-year-old (name withheld) on its payroll in the bid to sanitise its wage bill.
Rabiu made this revelation while shading more light on the state government’s plans to sue about 200 persons illegally on its payroll and collecting monthly salary.
The commissioner said on further investigations, it was discovered that “some directors of finance were involved in the racket of inflating the state’s workers monthly wage bill and pocketing the excess”.
He also revealed that the scam was more at the state Health Service Management Board (HSMB) where investigations showed that the suspended directors of finance were fraudulently selling out fake offers of employment at the cost of N250,000 to innocent job seekers.
He added that the state government was so far losing more than N216 million monthly to the racketeers.
Ali-Gusau lamented that “if utilised, the state government can employ an additional 8,000 persons and pay them salary” comfortably.
