About 40 per cent of the current monthly wage bill is to be saved after the completion of the ongoing verification of workers and pensioners exercise in Kwara State. Beside, over 6000 workers and retirees have been screened in the verification exercise.

Senior Special Assistant to the state governor on Media and Communications, Dr Muyideen Femi Akorede, stated this in Ilorin yesterday at a Ministerial Press Briefing held at the conference room of the state Ministry of Information and Communications.

He said the project was premised on the discrepancies and discoveries arising from the verification.

Akorede noted that the exercise being conducted by the Committee on Personal Database Development and chaired by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, was basically conceived to obtain data on the number of workers in the state. He disclosed that the exercise was in response to the frequent complaints on the suspicion that the payroll of the state was bloated.

"By the time the screening is over, the government expects to save about 35 to 40 per cent of the monthly wage bill at the state and local government levels. "It is not a target that the state government is insistent on, the target is based on a projection based on what we have seen so far.

"Governor Ahmed set up a committee on Personal Database Development some months ago, and the primary objective was to get data on the number of workers and pensioners at the state and local government levels, mainly because of frequent calls and complaints that the payroll is bloated and the suspicion that we have ghost workers.

"The committee is verifying a total of 82,000 workers and pensioners at the state and local government levels and so far, more than 6000 (workers and pensioners) have been verified in Ilorin West".

He added that the government was not unaware of the hardship posed by the verification and had decided to streamline it to ensure that the process is phased.

Akorede also confirmed that 10 people were arrested by the security agencies at the venue of verification for being in possession of fake documents. He stated that investigation had commenced by the security agents while those indicted would face full wrath of the law.