Yobe begins workers’ biometric re-validation exercise

Yobe state Ministry of Finance has kicked off biometric re-validation of workers in the employ of the state government to update their records with the ministry for the purpose of effective salary, pension and other emoluments.
The event was launched at the Government House, Damaturu yesterday with Governor Ibrahim Gaidam and his Deputy, Abubakar D. Aliyu being the first to be biometrically re-validated.
Finance Commissioner, Alhaji Muhammad Ismaila Nguru, who briefed the governor on the exercise, said its objective was to update workers’ record using the latest technology and ensure that those records are available and trackable in real time.
“Your Excellency, we are partnering Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) which has opened a BVN window for this exercise.
The exercise will be fully digital and less cumbersome and we will use the BVN numbers of workers and pair the information with what is in our records.
“When the information is updated in the process, no worker in Nigeria, whether at the federal, state or local level would be able to collect more than one salary at any given time,” he added.
According to Nguru, the exercise would not disrupt work-flow in government ministries, agencies and departments as the consultants engaged in the job will visit designated workplace locations, including some local government headquarters one after another to enroll and re-validate the workers.
Responding, Gaidam commended the finance ministry for the initiative, saying the last time a major biometric exercise for government workers was carried out was ten years ago in 2008.
“I want to commend the initiators of this exercise the commissioner for finance and this able team.
I could recall that this exercise was last done in 2008, which at the end of the exercise which was meant to stamp out ghost workers, the salary bill increased rather than decreased.
“The second biometric done was much better where almost all the ghost workers were flushed out.
The salary bill dropped to an acceptable level and as at now, I don’t think we have any ghost workers in the ministry of finance payroll,” he added.
Gaidam further said, after a successful completion of the exercise at the state level, it would be extended to the local government levels to help the local councils reap its benefits as well.

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