GOV DICKSON’S LG TOPS BAYELSA PAYROLL FRAUD - DEI

- LG scribe arrested, Monthly wage bill drops from #200m to #30m. 

Written by Dei Badou:

Reports on the ongoing Staff verification exercise in Bayelsa revealed that Governor Seriake Dickson’s Local Government Council (Sagbama) tops Bayelsa payroll fraud. It was learnt on Friday May 27th 2016 that the monthly wage bill of the governor’s Local Government Council dropped sharply from #200m to #30m, a situation that led to the arrest of the Secretary to the Local Government Education Authority [LGEA) over alleged falsification of nominal roll and over-bloated wage will.

Addressing a Press Conference in Yenagoa Chairman, Caretaker Committee of SALGA Mr. Michael Magbisa who stated that over eleven fictitious names were discovered on the wage bill attributed the delay in the payment of workers salaries to fraudulent practices, said it necessitated the council’s decision to embark on staff verification audit from 2007 to 2016.

Magbisa recalled that the last time the LG carried out employment was in 2007, adding that he was shocked to discover fictitious names, backdated employment on the payment vouchers and nominal rolls from 2007 to 2016.

Speaking further on the staff strength of the education authority, the council boss pointed out that the education board alone was over staffed with a wage bill of #13.1m in 2012, which has risen to #60m in 2016.

On the discovery of the anomalies on payment vouchers, nominal roll and huge wage bill, adding that on assumption of office, he decided to audit the number of staff to reduce the huge wage bill, Magbisa said, he was shocked when demanded for the 2007 to 2016 payment vouchers and nominal roll from the secretary of the education authority, who told him that the 2012 flood had destroyed all the documents.

According to Magbisa, he was not convinced, which prompted him to write a memo to the Executive Secretary [SUBEB] Mr. Walton Liverpool concerning the missing documents, adding that the documents were released to him where he discovered the monumental fraud and anomalies.      
On payment of teachers’ salaries, Magbisa explained that Friday 3rd of June 2016, audit exercise would have been concluded for teachers’ salaries to be paid, adding that already council workers have been paid their one month salary and the balance of seven months would be paid as soon as the verification exercise was concluded, promising to take drastic action against anyone involved in the fraud discovered as all the workers had complained the hardship in the delay in the payment of salaries.

While the immediate past Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Council Mr. Willie Oyadoungha was sworn-in as chairman in April 2013, Mr. Liverpool Walton Executive Secretary SUBEB was appointed into that office in late 2013; yet none of them were able to discover the monumental payroll fraud; not until the governor personally intervened to ascertain the actual workforce in the State.

It is allegedly reported in some quarters that one among the two mentioned above has Housing Estate, edifices and mansions in Yenagoa metropolis, properties said to have been built within four months of taking up the appointment with the restoration administration, yet the Governor Dickson has not found it necessary to question how and where he got the money to build these properties.