Officials in troubled Borno’s local governments have been defrauding the state of billions of naira for the past ten years, a report has shown.
Borno is the state most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency which has caused over 40,000 deaths since 2009 and displaced millions of Nigerians.
The details of the Borno local government fraud were contained in an interim report by a salary verification committee set up by the state government.
A PREMIUM TIMES reporter has seen a copy of the report submitted to the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum.
In the report, the committee said it has so far concluded the verification exercise in 19 of the 27 local governments in the state.
The committee reported that it recovered the total sum of N150 million in June alone as unclaimed monies after it insisted that every local government worker in the state appear before the committee to update their employment status.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Emirate Affairs, Segun Mai-Mele, confirmed this to PREMIUM TIMES in an interview last week.
He said the N150 million was “a saving” the committee was able to make after paying workers’ salaries in the 19 local government areas so far verified.
“This 150 million was what we were able to save for government, in one month, after a workers’ verification exercise was conducted in 19 local government areas,” he said.
