Exposing Ghost Workers in Nigeria: An Emerging Ethical Dimension to Get Things Right

Author(s)

Okafor Nneka Ifeoma , Omeh, Paul Hezekiah , Ifeanyichukwu Michael Abada ,

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Volume 7 - March 2018 (03)

Abstract

The nature and character exhibited by Post-Colonial system of Nigerian Public Service has been characterized by bloated number of ghost workers who receive their salaries and other emoluments at the end of the month. There tend to be dramatic turn by the government at various levels to fish-out the cankerworm which has eaten deep into the fabrics of the government. The introduction of the integrated personnel payroll and information system by the federal government and computerization exercise by the state government is a significant tool to put to death the menace of ghost workers syndrome in Nigeria. The paper seeks to investigate whether the integrated personnel payroll and information system has implicated the payroll fraud in Nigeria, using Enugu State as a case study. In other words, the paper ethically investigated the extent to which the State government has utilized the IPPIS in its planning and budgeting. Qualitative and quantitative methods were adequately utilized in generating its data, while the theoretical frame work of analysis was anchored on the Marxist theory of Post-Colonial state. The findings revealed that the introduction of IPPIS and computerization exercise has ethically exposed and blocked the holes through which the state treasuries were siphoned and it has also enhanced quality planning and budgeting in the Enugu State.

Keywords

Biometric Verification Number (BVN), Enugu State, Ethics, Ghost Workers, Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), Planning and Budgeting.

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