The Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) of the Delta State Biometric Payroll System has uncovered 17 staff from the Women Development Committee (WDC) and Youth Development Committee scheme (YDC) who were collecting salaries from both agencies.

A statement signed by the Delta state Commissioner for Information, Chike Ogeah Esq. and made available to Blank NEWS Online on Monday, July 14, 2014 revealed that each of the 17 staff receives a monthly stipend of N50,000.

Invariably, over N850,000 was being fraudulently received by the workers. The scam was uncovered after the evaluation of the AFIS revealed the identical finger prints of the 17 workers in the two agencies.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on ICT and Coordinator of the Biometric Payroll Verification Committee, Mr. Harold Monu, said the salaries of the affected staff in the two agencies have been stopped and their details passed to the Accountant General’s Office for recovery of monies while the Secretary to the State Government and the Head of Service have been notified for disciplinary actions to be initiated.

Monu said: “Criminal charges may also be leveled against the 17 people as government is determined to impose maximum sanction to serve as deterrent to other people involved in fraudulent drawing of salaries from the government.

“The AFIS is an initiative of the government to check fraud in the wages and salaries of civil servants in the state. It is entirely based on the application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) thereby removing the human element and shield the process from manipulation.

“Under the directive of Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, governor of the state, the exercise is a continuous one and is regularly reviewed to plug all loopholes.”