Cross River state local service commission has uncovered 570 fake pensioners in its payroll.
The discovery is as a result of the recent verification exercise carried out by the commission across the state.
Disclosing this in Calabar, the chairman of the commission Dr Peter Adigeb said the exercise is a demonstration of the commitment of the Prof Ben Ayade led administration in the state to ensure transparency, fairness and justice.
In addition, he stated that the exercise is to sanitize the administration of pension payment in the state to ensure regular and prompt payment to those legally due to their entitlement.
According to him the senator Ben Ayade led government has zero tolerance for corruption and cannot condone an atmosphere that derives cross Riverians of their legitimate entitlement. Governor Ayade is not a man to deny legitimate pensioners and workers in the state of their entitlement, right and pension.
“This verification exercise carried out by the commission is geared at addressing the lapses in the administration of pension in the state so that never again our pensioners who have faithfully served this state will not suffer. Also it will purge that challenges that had impeded the smooth management of pension in the state.
“And l am very happy to reveal to you that at the end of the exercise we discovered 570 fake pensioners that have been receiving pension criminally from the state with the discovery the illegal monies that they have been collecting from the state will end.”
At the end of the verification exercise, it was discovered that 5188 pensioners are currently in the payroll of the state, while of this number 4588 were verified. Also the exercise led to the discovery of 157 numbers of pensioners who are now late but were still been captured in the payroll.
More so, the commission couldn’t verify 413 pensioners due to some fraudulent transactions at the end of the exercise.