THE GHOST WORKER SYNDROME: A COMPLEX DIMENSSION TO PUBLIC SERVICE CORRUPTION IN KOGI STATE – NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA. (Review Completed - Accepted)
The public sector constitutes the largest sector of the Nigerian economy. It employs the largest population of the labour force and also controls the bulk of the financial resources of the country. What this implies is that whatever adversely affects the public service has a huge multiplier effect on national development. The ghost can be a real person who knowingly or not is placed on the payroll, or a fictitious person invented by the dishonest employee. Thus, this paper attempts an x-ray the menacing ill of ghost workers, by the adoption of some basic accounting procedures to ensure internal control of public funds. This is because the public sector is the most venerable sector to employee frauds. The research findings show that public sector management in Kogi State has not lived up to expectation especially with regards to human resource management, good internal control system and good accounting procedure to reduce the act of ghost workers, among others. The study recommends the formulation of good human resource and recruitment policy, attractive pay package and internal control/audit department.
Keywords: Corruption, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Fraud, Ghost, Public Sector