International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background: The phenomenon of ghost workers has been a persistent challenge in the Nigerian public sector, particularly in local government areas. Ghost workers refer to fictitious or non-existent employees who are included in the payroll, thereby leading to financial leakages and mismanagement of public resources.In Delta State, Nigeria, the problem of ghost workers has been reported to be rampant in local government areas, resulting in significant financial losses and undermining the effective delivery of public services. To address this challenge, the Delta State Government introduced the Electronic Biometric Attendance Register (EBAR) system, aimed at automating attendance recording and eliminating ghost workers from the payroll.The EBAR system uses biometric data, such as fingerprints, to verify the identity of employees and record their attendance. This system has the potential to eliminate ghost workers by ensuring that only legitimate employees are paid salaries. Objectives: This study investigated the impact of the EBAR system in eliminating ghost workers from the local government of Delta State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study seeks to assess the effectiveness of the EBAR system in reducing ghost workers, examine the challenges and limitations of the system, and identify strategies for improving its implementation and sustainability.
Method: The paper adopted cross-sectional and historical design to elicit and analyse the qualitative and quantitative data from the local government council of Delta State. Results: The introduction of Biometric attendance register of clock-in and clock-out provide accurate and instant information on attendance records. The system established a better platform to regulate and manage absenteeism and lateness of workers for effective productivity and service delivery
Conclusion: The study concludes that Delta state government has initiated so many reforms to eliminate ghost workers in local government councils and other public service such as head count, physical verification exercise and of course biometric attendant register of clock-in and clock-out. The biometric system recorded some level of successes but characterized by challenges such as lack of electricity, corruption in the use of the biometric machine through inducement of the schedule officers to take the machine to private homes and occasions for absent workers clock-in and clock-out. local government councils and other public service of Delta state.
Unique Contribution: The study has provided fresh insights on how the ghost workers syndrome could be eliminated to create room for increased productivity and a more efficient service delivery at the local government councils of Delta state.
Key Recommendation: The government should initiate a proper policy to reform, and periodically retrain the heads of department, unit heads and the schedule officers at the local government councils to eliminate all forms /attitude of corruption and ghost workers payroll fraud. Government should improve the welfare package of the local government workers. The biometric attendance register of clock-in and clock-out should be reformed to overcome all identified challenges.