The Kano State Government has inaugurated a 12-member executive committee to recover N1.8 billion illegally deducted from civil servants’ salaries by private loan vendors.
The government also announced the immediate suspension of further loan agreements between civil servants and private loan vendors, declaring that it would no longer serve as a third party in such contractual arrangements.
Speaking during the inauguration of the committee on Thursday, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Umar Faruq Ibrahim, said an independent audit uncovered arbitrary deductions from workers’ salaries by some loan vendors.
He explained that the audit revealed multiple deductions against the one-third salary deduction officially permitted under the law, describing the practice as a violation of extant regulations.
According to the SSG, the State Executive Council approved the audit report and directed the committee, chaired by the Commissioner for Finance, Dr Ismaila Aliyu Danmaraya, to identify all affected workers, dead or alive, for eventual refund of the deducted funds.
Ibrahim clarified earlier reports alleging that N1.5 billion was missing under the tenure of the immediate past Head of Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Musa.
He stated that the audit report exonerated the former Head of Service from any wrongdoing and confirmed that the actual amount involved was N1.8 billion.
‘There was a misrepresentation of what the audit released and what is in the public domain. The clarification is that the missing funds are N1.8 billion and not N1.5 billion,’ he said.
The SSG expressed concern over what he described as indiscriminate loan agreements between civil servants and private vendors, revealing that outstanding loan obligations currently stand at about N13 billion.