The Bauchi State Government has uncovered more than 100 ghost workers in the state’s health sector and has vowed to impose strict sanctions on those involved in line with civil service regulations.
Speaking at a press briefing in Bauchi on Thursday, the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Hospital Management Board, Mr. Sambo Alkali, revealed that the discovery was made during an ongoing verification exercise aimed at cleansing the state’s healthcare workforce.
“We are currently working on a verification exercise to fish out all those ghost workers people have been talking about.
Recently, we carried out the exercise in five facilities and uncovered more than 100 ghost health workers whose names will soon be submitted to Governor Bala Mohammed for disciplinary action,” Alkali stated.
He noted that the governor is committed to sanitising the payroll system and ensuring that only genuine workers receive salaries. He said the identified ghost workers would face disciplinary measures under existing civil service rules to serve as a deterrent to others.
Alkali explained that while tackling the ghost worker issue, the government has also introduced a targeted recruitment scheme to address the shortage of medical personnel — a challenge he described as a “global issue.”
“The governor has approved a scheme which is giving us encouraging results. Currently, we are engaging more than 40 doctors, including consultants and medical officers, who were carefully selected and scientifically distributed based on available data. They also supervise our facilities to improve service delivery,” he said.
He added that the governor had directed the board to carry out a comprehensive gap analysis to identify areas needing urgent intervention, while a committee is developing a new healthcare scheme of service to address salary concerns and make the state more attractive to medical professionals.
According to Alkali, the proposed scheme aims to bring state health workers’ salaries on par with those of their federal counterparts, and the framework is almost ready for submission to the governor for approval.
Also speaking at the briefing, the Muhammed Dambam, Bauchi State Ministry of Health Commissioner, said the governor had reiterated his commitment to collaborating with development partners to establish a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) production facility in the state to tackle child malnutrition.
Dambam further disclosed that the governor has pledged to allocate ₦250 million this year — the same amount provided in 2024 — to recapitalize the state’s drugs and medical consumables agency to ensure steady supply of essential medical items.
He stressed that these measures are part of ongoing reforms aimed at strengthening the state’s healthcare system and boosting public confidence in health institutions.
