Off the wire
• Tanzanian police arrest man for suspected elephant poisoning  • Commentary: Hypocrisy of Abe's "reconciliation" efforts self-evident with shrine visit  • Weather forecast for world cities -- Dec. 29  • 1st LD: Syrian government, armed opposition reach truce agreement -- Putin  • China says U.S. blacklisting irresponsible, not objective  • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- Dec. 29  • Senior official calls for independent Chinese Catholic Church  • China to remain attractive to foreign investment: official  • UNHCR says over 38,000 Somali refugees repatriated from Kenya  • Zambia closes year with 7.5-pct inflation rate  
You are here: 　 Home

Nigeria cuts 50,000 "ghost workers" from gov't payroll

Xinhua, December 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Nigerian government claimed on Wednesday that it has sacked 50,000 "ghost workers" from the federal payroll, a big step in its fight against corruption.

Nigeria will make a "huge" saving of 200 billion Nigerian naira (around 635 million U.S. dollars) this year from cutting out these "ghost workers," said Garba Shehu, the government spokesperson, on Twitter.

Shehu also revealed that 11 people "championing the syndicate of the ghost workers" have been handed over to the authorities and some of them have already been "undergoing trial."

The initiative is part of an effort by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who won the presidential election last May largely by his anti-corruption stance.

The anti-corruption audit uses bank verification numbers to crack down on public salary fraud.

Nigeria's economy has been plagued with fraud. The government is hoping to reduce its expanding budget deficit by this anti-corruption drive. Endi