The sum of N3.5billion salary fraud has been uncovered on the Benue State Civil Service payroll following a verification exercise to ascertain the over bloated wage of the state.
The state Government recently engaged SystemSpecs in managing the state’s salary payment system which further revealed 500 duplicate names and over 20 duplicate Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) through its Remita software.
Benue State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Mr David Olofu who confirmed this, revealed that the engagement of SystemSpecs’ Remita in managing the state’s salary payment has helped rid of fraud on the payroll.
Olofu said, “It is painful to me as commissioner for Finance to start something that I think will bring relief to us as a state.
“To me, it is important to look at what we have as against the solution we are presenting and to also look at the agreement and see if there is any shady deal. SystemSpecs did not come from heaven, they have been recommended,’’ he said.
He said that the Federal Government was presently using its platform, Remita for the payment of its workers’ salaries.
Olofu insisted that the payment of salaries needed a platform regardless of whether the payroll was prepared by civil servants or not.
“We must always use a platform for the payment of workers’ salaries, before this time, we were using the U-pay platform.
“When we came in, we discovered that salaries were paid through the platform but the system had many problems, which included duplication of names and we wanted to find out where the problems were coming from.
“We agreed in the ministry to do a trial with Zenith Bank to see if the challenges were as a result of normal banking problems or were caused by civil servants, that trial exposed a lot of issues including duplication of names on the payroll.’
The software has made enormous impact on the Nigerian economy in a relatively short time, and has attracted a global recognition for its role in engendering accountability and transparency in both private and public sectors.
A total of six states including Kano, Zamfara, and Benue have adopted Remita in their payroll management strategy. At the federal level, the smooth running of the Treasury Singly Account (TSA) is also facilitated by the Remita platform.
Remita is more than just a payment software, it also has HR and payroll functions which help businesses maintain a comprehensive, online employee personal and payroll data.
Licenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Remita is developed 100% in Nigeria to the highest international standards, and it has significantly assisted to revolutionise the e-payment industry in Nigeria.
