SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE CHAIRMAN HIGH-POWERED
COMMITTEEON STAFF AUDIT AND VERIFICATION, NDE JOHN
GOBAK, OFR, mni AT THE SUBMISSION OF THE COMMITTEE’S
REPORT TO THE GOVERNOR OF PLATEAU STATE ON FRIDAY
21ST JANUARY, 2022.

PROTOCOL

It is with great pleasure and respect that I, on behalf of the Committee, extend our profound gratitude to God for this opportunity and most humbly register our appreciation to His Excellency, the Governor of Plateau State, Rt. Hon (Dr). Simon Bako Lalong for the confidence reposed in us to execute this difficult but vital assignment.

2. Your Excellency, you would recall that this Committee, on your behalf, was inaugurated by the Secretary to the Government of the State, Prof. Danladi A. Atu on 20th April, 2021 with the following Terms of Reference:
   To compile comprehensive and accurate Staff disposition for all Staff under the employment of the Plateau State Government, reflecting all relevant information on each officer;
   To establish the actual workforce in each Ministry, Department and Agency (MDA) and the total Staff strength for the State;
   To scrutinize Staff records, identify and compile list of officers who may have falsified their records and overstayed in the service or gained unmerited placements/promotions;
   To ascertain if any Ghost Worker exists on the payroll of Government and the person(s) responsible;

To look into the cases of proliferation of fake/multiple Staff Identity Cards and recommend appropriate and standardized means of Staff identification in the Service; and
To make any other recommendation(s) that will guide Government, especially in maintaining accurate and verified Staff records.

3. Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to, at this juncture, intimate you that this Committee was initially charged to deliver its Report in three months but given the quantum of work and other variables outside our control, we had to request for an extension of time which was graciously approved.
4. We applaud Mr. Governor’s determination to unravel the bane behind the State’s futile attempts at authenticating its Staff Database as well as ensuring all loopholes are blocked against manipulation. We are however pained to report that the Committee amongst others discovered that poor record keeping in the system, failure of certain officers and or Ministries Departments and Agencies to timely respond to correspondences and the questionable conduct of some staff bent on circumventing the system to either prolong their stay in office or gain unmerited placements/promotions seemed to have thwarted this effort. There is, of course, those who benefit from such loopholes and or create them to perpetrate their unwholesome practices. I am happy to announce that we have identified such gabs and recommended solutions.
5. Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to at this juncture intimate you of the major findings and recommendations of the Committee as follows:

A. Findings
As a result of the autonomy granted to the Judiciary and Legislature, the Committee only screened staff under the direct purview of the Executive;
74 MDAs were screened with a total number of 14,418 officers said to be in Service whereas only 13,978 were authenticated indicating a difference of 440. Out of the 13,978 staff verified, 709 staff either falsified or altered their age while 673 others were wrongly placed/promoted/converted. 66 ought to have retired prior to the inauguration of the Committee on 20th April, 2021. 17 cases were recommended for review by a Medical Board.
Available records at our disposal show that the total staff strength of the 74 MDAs as at 31st December, 2021, is 13,806 while that of Political Appointees (348), Contract Staff (429), Programme Athletes and Ad-hoc Staff (2791) is 3,568.
There is a manifest disconnect between the Salary Automation Unit in the Ministry of Finance and other important Offices of Government such as the Office of the Head of Civil Service and the Office of the State Auditor-General resulting in the Unit’s seeming overbearingness and or ability to function unchecked;
Some Staff were still being paid salaries months after they had disengaged from the Service either by Death, Retirement, Transfer or Secondment due to failure to timely raise Variation Orders in that regard or collusion to circumvent the System and or outright acts of misdemeanours;
While Government is determined to boost Sporting Activities, especially Football, the support to both Plateau United Football Club and Mighty Jets International Football Club appeared to be flagrantly abused as both Clubs are apparently over-bloated. Some of the players are old and far spent to provide the needed result in a competitive activity that requires vibrancy and athleticism which perhaps might have been responsible for their dwindling performance in the Nigerian Professional Football League in recent years;
The exclusive rights the Civil Service Commission wields in terms of its Delegated Powers appeared to have overburdened it with the attendant consequences;
There seems to have been no proper needs assessment in Employment, Advancement, and or Conversions into the Service leading to lopsided placements and over saturation of certain Cadres and positions;
Some MDAs surprisingly grant approval to their staff to change their date of birth years after being in Service;

B. Recommendations:
The Salary Automation Unit should have a Tripartite Supervisory Linkage among the Offices of the Head of Civil Service, State Auditor-General and the Accountant General who may either jointly endorse the Payment Mandates or ensure on a monthly basis, that what is paid is well vetted and genuine. That is, while the Office of the Head of Civil Service compiles, the Office of the Auditor General vets while the Office of the Accountant General pays;
Detailed searchlights be thrown on both Plateau United and Mighty Jets International Football Clubs as Government makes effort to woo private sponsorships to help sustain the Clubs as Government alone cannot sufficiently do that;
All approvals earlier granted some Staff to change their dates of birth be rescinded;
All Employments/Placements/Conversions/Advancements done against the provisions of the Schemes of Service and other extant Circulars as captured in the Main Report be withdrawn;
The Training Bureau in the Office of the Head of Civil Service be upgraded and empowered to handle the Manpower Development Needs of the entire Service;
Government conducts adequate Needs Assessment in future employment exercises to ensure uniformity in spread of officers to be engaged;
A Medical Board be urgently constituted/empowered to evaluate ailing staff and make appropriate recommendations;
Auxiliary staff whose jobs are considered obsolete or better subcontracted for improved productivity, should be outsourced to reduce the wage burden on Government;

6.0 Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, may I respectfully submit the Committee’s Report which is in Four Volumes namely: Vol.1 – Main Report (with appendices), Vol.2 – Comprehensive Staff List, Vol.3 – Minutes of Meetings, Reports of Audit Verification Exercises and Complains/Submissions Received and Vol.4(i-lxxi) – Completed Staff Bio-Data Forms

7.0 Furthermore we arranged the Staff List in descending order by Date of Retirement; by this arrangement Government would be able to deduce, at a glance, its Staff Retirement data. For example, in the next five years 2,566 Staff are expected to retire from service thus:

S/NO
YEAR
EXPECTED № OF STAFF TO RETIRE

1
2022
404

2
2023
620

3
2024
601

4
2025
484

5
2026
457

TOTAL
2,566

10. Finally, we thank all MDAs and staff for their cooperation and hope this Report achieves its purpose.

count | 24

Speech by Nde John Gobak’s Staff Audit Committee at the Submission of its Report to Gov. Lalong