Report… How a rotten civil service cripples anti-graft war

Not many Nigerians were stunned recently when revelations came to light that a cartel in the federal civil service made up of senior officers, as well as others from the ranks, tagged ‘budget mafia’ had smuggled items into the budget proposal submitted to President Muhammadu...

Not many Nigerians were stunned recently when revelations came to light that a cartel in the federal civil service made up of senior officers, as well as others from the ranks, tagged ‘budget mafia’ had smuggled items into the budget proposal submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari amounting to about N1.7 trillion.
The mild surprise stems from the knowledge that civil servants at all levels of government have been severally accused of being the brains behind a lot of corrupt practices in the ministries, and government departments, and being the ones showing corrupt politicians the ‘way things are done’.
The expose on the budget mafia is only one of the several corrupt practices in Nigeria’s civil service which has over the years been grappling with the evil of ghost workers, which a few people have been using to siphon government funds to their private pockets.
To say the spectre of ghost workers within the nation’s civil service, whether at the state or federal civil level, has reached an alarming high is simply stating the obvious. The regularity of salary scams and all such related sleaze have left the different tiers of government locked in a constant battle to checkmate the activities of saboteurs in the system.