Bauchi Govt Uncovers 100 Health Ghost Workers, To Face Sanctions

The Bauchi State Government on Thursday disclosed that it has uncovered at least 100 ghost workers in the state’s health sector, vowing that the culprits will be dealt with under civil service rules.
The Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Hospital Management Board, Mr Sambo Alkali, made this disclosure at a news conference in Bauchi on Thursday.
According to him, the names of all identified ghost workers would soon be submitted to Gov. Bala Mohammed and subsequently dealt with in accordance with civil service rules.
“We are currently working on a verification exercise to fish out all those ghost workers people have been talking about.
“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.
Alkali stated that they are currently engaged with more than 40 doctors on the scheme, which includes consultants and medical officers who were carefully selected and scientifically distributed based on available data.
While explaining that it was a pull system that brought the professionals on board, adding that they also supervise the hospital’s facilities, the state health board boss said that they were mandated by the governor to conduct a comprehensive gap analysis to improve service delivery.
Alkali stated that the governor also mandated the state committee on health to develop a healthcare scheme of service that would address the salary issue and attract medical professionals to work in Bauchi.
According to him, this is nearing completion and will be submitted to the governor for further implementation.
Also speaking, the state’s Commissioner for Health, Muhammed Dambam, stated that the governor had reiterated his commitment to collaborating with relevant agencies and partners to establish Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) in the state.
Dambam explained that the essence of RUTF was to reduce malnutrition among children, adding that the government pledged to improve the recapitalisation of the drugs and medical consumables agency in the state
According to the commissioner, the governor also pledged to allocate N250 million to the agency this year, as he did in 2024.