At least 25 civil servants under the employment of the Ondo State Government have been handed over to the police for allegedly stealing public funds.
Senior Special Assistant to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu on Special Duties, Doyin Odebowale, who handed over the workers to the police in Akure, the state capital, accused them of stealing and defrauding the state government.
He disclosed that the civil servants were caught involving in all forms of employment racketeering and inputting fictitious names into the state’s payroll system.
According to Odebowale, one of the erring workers put the name of his wife on the payroll system and placed her on monthly salary at the expense of government.
He said, “A particular man (among the civil servants) employed his wife and placed her on level 14 and she had been collecting salaries. She never attended any interview.
“Also, we were able to discover that some certain elements whose names appears on the staff list were never employed directly by this government.
“One of them even moved N104m out of the State Universal Basic Education Board account which is pure stealing.”
According to him, the workers were trailed following a reform carried out in the civil service system by the State’s Head of Service, Mr Alex Aragbaye.
Odebowale noted that the workers had been suspended from the state’s workforce on the instructions of the governor in order to give room for proper investigation by the police.
