In a bid to purge the civil service of fraudulent activities, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, HOCSF, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has revealed a crackdown on ghost workers based abroad but receiving salaries in Nigeria.

She noted that the verification exercises of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) helped to expose some of the fraudulent activities being perpetuated by certain individuals in the service.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF) revealed that numerous civil servants who were found to be involved in fraudulent activities were forced to resign from their positions after failing to participate in the physical verification process, which exposed their deceit.

She added that civil servants who are outside the country without official permission and still on the payroll will be sacked after the ongoing verification is completed.

This was as she also disclosed that 1618 civil servants with fake employment letters were also caught and dismissed.

Yemi-Esan revealed this during a media parley with media executives on Wednesday in Abuja, as part of activities to mark 2024 Civil Service Week.

The theme for 2024 celebration is ‘Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Building Resilient Education Systems for Increased Access to Inclusive, Lifelong, Quality and Relevant Learning in Africa’.

She said: “There are efforts to tackle Nigerians who have relocated abroad doing news jobs, but are still under the payroll of the civil service.

“The Federal Government is going hard on them, as many of them are voluntarily resigning after the physical verifications.

“Recently, there was a circular that went out to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that they should do a physical headcount in their MDAs. 

“That means, everybody on the nominal roll, that is receiving salaries, should appear physically and the names of those who did not show up for the exercise should be forwarded.

“In the circular, I cautioned that Permanent Secretaries and CEOs that give wrong information will be held liable if anything is discovered outside of the information that was given.”

She alleged that certain high-ranking officials, who were responsible for providing her office with information, were complicit in the fraud and deliberately withheld details to conceal the vacancies, thereby perpetuating the scam.

“It is a Nigerian thing. We are running hard against the culture that tolerates it. Outsiders don’t know the bashing we get every day trying to do the right thing.

“I expect that once the verification report comes anybody that is not in the country automatically loses his job.

“What we discovered in the last month of that verification is that most of them are now resigning their appointment which is a good development,” Yemi-Ean said.

Yemi-Esan, who is set to retire on August 14, as announced by the director of communication, Mohammed Ahmed, during the parley, has been spearheading the purge to restore integrity and transparency in the civil service.

She vowed to continue the clampdown, ensuring that only legitimate civil servants receive their rightful compensation.

Yemi-Esan noted that so far, 69,308 civil servants who participated in the compulsory verification exercise have been fully integrated into the IPPIS after their verifications.