By Austin Ogwuda, Asaba
OPERATIVES of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested a banker with one of the new generation banks in Asaba, Delta State for allegedly inflating the payroll of the state government with ghost workers.

The banker (names withheld) allegedly works with the bank which the Delta government contracted out the job of computerizing the payroll through the biometric capture exercise.

Inside sources said that suspect allegedly compromised the security features of the data system by inserting ghost workers including those of seven names of his relations.

He was picked up in Asaba last week and taken to Port Harcourt office of the EFCC for questioning.

Contacted, the Senior Special Adviser (ICT) to the Delta governor overseeing the Ministry of  Science and Technology, Mr. Sunny Ofili, confirmed the arrest, saying actions had been taken to mitigate any loss to the state Government. One of the actions is that we have taken over the responsibility of data capture new enrollments into our payroll system from the bank”, he added.

“The ministry of Science and Technology now handles it. This will ensure the integrity of our payroll data. This is a temporary measure pending the conclusion of internal investigations by the bank and the state government. The state government has zero tolerance for fraud. The matter is before the appropriate investigative agency, so let us not pre-empt their investigation”.

-Vanguard

Posted by admin on Oct 23 2011. Filed under Delta, EFCC Politics, Headlines, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry