Bauchi govt uncovers over 100 ghost workers in health sector

The Bauchi State Government says it has uncovered more than 100 ghost workers within the state’s health sector, a discovery it described as troubling and unacceptable.

Sambo Alkali, Executive Chairperson of the Bauchi State Hospital Management Board, made this known at a press conference on Thursday in Bauchi.

He explained that the fraudulent names were detected during recent staff verification exercises and would soon be forwarded to Governor Bala Mohammed for further action.

Alkali stressed that those found complicit in the scandal will face appropriate sanctions in line with civil service rules.

“We are currently working on a verification exercise to fish out all those ghost workers people have been talking about,” he said.

“Recently, we have done it in our five facilities, and we came up with more than 100 ghost health workers whose names will ultimately be submitted to the governor.

“What we are doing in Bauchi to curtail the issue of shortage of doctors, which is a global issue, is that the governor has approved a scheme which is giving us a beautiful result,’ he said.

Mr Alkali said the state currently engages more than 40 doctors in the scheme which ranges from consultants to medical officers who were carefully selected and scientifically distributed based on the data available.

He explained that it was a pull system which brought the professionals on board, adding that they also supervise the hospital’s facilities.

He said they were mandated by the governor to come up with all the gap analyses to improve the service delivery.

Mr Alkali noted that the governor also mandated the state committee on health to produce a healthcare scheme of service that would address the salary issue and attract medical professionals to work in Bauchi.

He said the plan is to equate the state health workers’ salary with that of the federal government.

According to him, this is on the verge of completion and will be submitted to the governor for onward implementation.

Also speaking, Muhammed Dambam, the state’s Commissioner for Health, said that the governor had reiterated his commitment to collaborate with relevant agencies and partners to establish Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) in the state.

Mr Dambam explained that the essence of RUTF is to reduce malnutrition among children, adding that the government pledged to improve the recapitalisation of the drugs and medical consumables agency in the state.

He said the governor also pledged to channel N250 million to the agency this year, like he did in 2024.