El-Rufai Goes After Ghost Workers, Begins Biometric Verification of Civil Servants

The Kaduna State Government has announced the commencement of biometric verification of all civil servants in its employment from Wednesday.

A statement by Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity said the exercise is designed to provide the government an accurate and reliable record of its personnel numbers, and clean-up its payroll.

He said data collected from the exercise will enable the government determine if the billions of naira expended monthly on staff salary are being paid to identifiable and verifiable civil servants, and make savings from an updated personnel record. “A circular signed by the Head of Service, Alisabatu Dada Onazi, said that the biometric registration exercise will be conducted simultaneously in the three zones, from locations in Kaduna, Kafanchan and Zaria.

“The circular also specified the order in which the personnel from each ministry are expected to appear for the exercise, and advised that civil servants must bring their letter of appointment, letter of last promotion and means of identification, which should be any of the following: national identity card, driver’s license, permanent voter’s card or international passport.

“The Head of Service directed that civil servants should physically appear before the verification team for screening and collection of their salary cheques for the month of June 2015,” the statement noted.

The Kaduna State Government last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding with United Bank for Africa and Zenith Bank to partner in updating the civil service payroll. The biometric verification exercise is scheduled to end on July 8.