Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secrets Reporters
A fresh cloud of scandal has descended on the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) in Zaria, Kaduna State, as federal auditors uncovered a massive payroll fraud involving ghost workers to the tune of ₦46,431,371.22.
According to an audit document obtained by SecretsReporters, seventeen individuals were mysteriously paid salaries between January and October 2021, despite not appearing on the hospital’s nominal roll.
Quoting Paragraph 3110 of the Financial Regulations, 2009, the report stresses that “a public officer who authorizes the payment of public fund to ghost-workers and/or knowingly processes such payment shall be charged for gross misconduct, removed from the schedule, and reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.”
The audit noted that the net salary paid to these seventeen ghost beneficiaries amounted to over ₦46.4 million, a sum that could fund critical medical equipment, improve patient care, or even settle months of legitimate staff arrears.
Shockingly, the management of ABUTH offered no response to the damning findings. In the absence of any explanation or rebuttal, auditors have upheld the red flags as valid and unresolved, pointing to deep-rooted internal control failures within the institution.
According to the audit, besides the glaring risk of fund diversion and loss of government revenue, the lack of due diligence exposes the hospital to institutional rot, where accountability is sacrificed on the altar of negligence and complicity.
The audit recommended that the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of ABUTH should appear before the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly to provide a comprehensive explanation for the illegal payments.
In addition, the CMD was directed to submit the personnel files, letters of appointment, IPPIS numbers, and other relevant documents of the seventeen ghost beneficiaries.
The hospital boss was mandated to recover the full sum of ₦46,431,371.22 and remit it to the federal treasury and forward evidence of remittance to the appropriate legislative committees.
More so, the audit recommended that the CMD should face appropriate sanctions as outlined in Paragraphs 3110 and 3129 of the Financial Regulations if the funds are not accounted for.
