Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma has said that his administration discovered pervasive corruption in the state civil service when he took over power from the sacked Emeka Ihedioha’s administration.
Disclosing this in his state broadcast to Imo people on 100 days in office on Monday, Uzodinma said that he inherited a public service that was riddled with corruption and fraud.
“The amount of Imo State money that was siphoned through a public sector corruption-riddled payroll system was simply mind-blowing, to say the least, incredible.”
“More mesmerising is the fact that the nominal roll of pensioners has stood at 30,000 for 10 years now. This will mean that there has been no retirements in the last 10 years and no pensioner has died either.
He noted that the absence of biometric verification number (BVN) in the payment of salaries was another clear showcase sharp practices in the state payroll system.
“Most of the payroll fraud was committed through multiple entries of the same BVN for different names on the payroll. It was incredible to discover that some people earned salaries as civil servants and at the same time earned pension as pensioners.”
He disclosed that by insisting on enforcement of BVN records, he has been able to save about N2 billion monthly from the wage bill of Imo workers and pensioners.
“This huge sum of money will be ploughed back to infrastructural development for more roads, more housing and better hospitals and schools in the coming months and years.”
According to him, after sanitizing the public service finances, he would move to recover every government asset wrongly appropriated by individuals. “Imo people should trust me to recover to the last value any government asset in private hands, no matter who is involved.”

By Chris Njoku