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Newborn on Nigeria payroll, earning $150 a month

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- A newborn baby in Nigeria got added to a government payroll, earning about $150 a month for the last two or three years, a discovery indicative of the widespread corruption starving the oil-rich West African nation of much needed funds, authorities said Friday.

The baby was one of many so-called ``ghost workers'' found to be getting salaries without performing a job, said Garba Gajam, the attorney general of Zamfara state located in Nigeria's arid and impoverished northwest.

The employee was listed as being 1-month-old in government records, but Gajam said the child's father actually started collecting the salary before the baby was born. Records also show that the baby has a diploma.

Zamfara state has asked government workers to present their letters of employment and qualifications in a verification exercise meant to reverse a trend that has government workers giving fictitious jobs to family members to boost their pay checks.

``It's at the local government level that this is most rampant,'' said Gajam. ``Leaving the local government with nothing to execute projects.''

The local government is responsible for maintaining roads, disposing of garbage and providing public transportation. But diversions of funds, such as to ``ghost workers,'' means the majority of Nigerians are left with virtually no services from their government.

Offenders in Zamfara state will have to refund all the money collected over the years and will also most likely be prosecuted, said Gajam.

But analysts say the trend cuts across the country.

``There is no state in Nigeria that doesn't have ghost workers,'' says Thompson Ayodele, director of Initiative for Public Policy Analysis in Lagos. ``In this case, at least the baby is alive, what about the thousands of ghost workers who don't even exist?''

``Ghost workers'' collect salaries and eventually qualify for pensions as well. The money is actually paid into the accounts of the people who created the identities.

``(Government workers) even continue collecting the pensions of dead people,'' says Ayodele who authored a book on the issue.

Eight people are standing trial at the moment for diverting pension funds using ``nonexistent'' persons, said Femi Babafemi, spokesman for Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

``Meanwhile, the real pensioners who earned these funds were left unattended to,'' he said.

Nigeria, a top crude oil supplier to the U.S., has a long history of corruption, with one official once estimating the country has lost more than $380 billion to graft since gaining its independence from Britain in 1960. Corruption trickles down from politicians in the capital city of Abuja to the lowest police officer who shake down bribes at traffic checkpoints.

 

<한글기사>

부패 공무원 아기, 출생전부터 3년동안봉급 받아



신생아가 공무원 임금지급 대상으로 등록돼 지난 2-3년 동안 매달 150달러 정도의 봉급을 받은 것으로 밝혀졌다고 나이지리아 정부가 11일 밝혔다.

이 아이는 나이지리아 국고를 갉아먹고 있는 이른바 `유령 노동자'의 하나로 이 름만 올려놓은 이 아이 앞으로 매달 봉급이 지급됐다고 나이지리아 북서부 잠파라 주 검찰총장이 설명했다.

아이는 현재 생후 1개월인 것으로 정부 기록에 나와 있으나 아이 아버지는 이 아이가 태어나기 전부터 아이 이름으로 된 봉급을 챙겼으며 서류에는 아이가 학위까 지 가진 것으로 기록돼 있었다고 한다.

이 비위사실은 잠파라 주가 최근 공무원들을 대상으로 고용계약서와 자격증명서 등을 제출토록 해 공무원들이 가족 이름을 공무원 임금지급 대상 명부에 허위로  올려 봉급을 타가는 것을 적발하는 과정에서 드러났다.

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