Over 145 civil servants in Kwara State have been discovered to have understated their ages in order to remain in the service longer than the law stipulates.

The state's Head of Service, Alhaji Dabarako Mohammed, disclosed this yesterday in Ilorin while briefing newsmen on what he called ‘performance contracting' which was being introduced by the state government to ensure service delivery in the state's civil service.

Mohammed, who spoke with newsmen along with the commissioner for Information and Communication, Prince Tunji Morohunfoye, and the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media, Dr. Muideen Akorede, also disclosed that some 23 others had also been affected by the biometric investigation of workers being carried out by his office.

He said the era of promotion based on years in office for civil servants was now a thing of the past and that their performance on the job would be the criterion.

He said 100 out of the 145 who allegedly doctored their ages were from the Ministry of Health while the remaining 45 were from the Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development.

Under the performance contract system, civil servants will be judged based on how they execute their schedules of duty. The project, according to Morohunfoye, starts with commissioners.

On the civil service and the use of biometrics, the HOS said: "We don't have underage workers but it is true that people over state their ages and we are catching them using biometrics, which also helps to stabilise the salary system.

"In the process, we saw people who filled different ages and we called them and showed them and applied the stipulated punishment - which is to ask them to exit, and when processing their papers, we removed two years from their entitlements and paid their pension based on where they originally should have been. Many of them are now regretting their actions."