Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has explained his administration’s approval for a comprehensive staff payroll verification exercise targeting “ghost” workers across the 23 local councils of the state.

The issue of bloated salary payrolls at the local council level, Fubara disclosed, had been a lingering challenge even before he assumed office, and there was the need to tackle it headlong.

According to Fubara, the then Local Government Service Commission was already working on the issue before the unfortunate emergency rule in the state, adding that when he returned and a new Commission had been put in place, he was still determined to resolve the issue.

The governor stated this yesterday during the commissioning of the Omademe Internal Roads Project in Ikwerre Local Council Area.

He said the approval of the verification exercise and implementation of the report was borne out of the administration’s resolve to entrench fiscal discipline within the public service.

He said that having been a Treasury Officer before his venture into politics, he ensured that he brought his wealth of experience and the deployment of ICT personnel to guide the committee on the assignment. He noted that the committee was designed to handle the exercise with utmost objectivity and integrity, ensuring that the assignment was devoid of politics.

“It doesn’t matter whether the people are my supporters. It doesn’t matter whether they are people from the other side. Now there is no other side. We are all Rivers people. I want to ensure that the right thing is done.

“I’m not against you being employed. But the issue is that if you have to be employed, you have to be employed through the proper channel.

“So anybody who is writing anything, saying that it has something to do politically, please desist from it.

Everything about this state mustn’t be tied to politics. It mustn’t be tied to myself and because of this and that. No, please, at times, let’s be very objective and look beyond the issue of politics and look at facts. So, I want to say here that I approved the implementation of that recommendation and I stand by it,” he said.