The Lagos State Government has launched a Monthly Biometric Staff Verification Exercise under its Biometric Staff Audit System, deploying regular digital identity checks across the public service as a structural mechanism for eliminating ghost workers, preventing payroll fraud, and ensuring that only active, legitimate, and duly verified employees remained on the government’s salary roll.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Internal Audit Dr. Oyeyemi Ayoola, speaking at the launch, said the initiative would be instrumental in cleansing the payroll of fictitious entries and called on auditors who would administer the system not to compromise its integrity, warning that the exercise’s success depended entirely on the professional ethics and collective commitment of those running it. She said internal controls and strict procedural adherence would be the defining factors between a system that delivered its objectives and one that was gamed from within.
Permanent Secretary of the Office of Internal Audit Mrs. Monsurat Titilope Alaka said the biometric system would make staff verification faster and more accurate, while the Head of Service’s representative described biometric identity management as a global best practice that was long overdue in the Lagos public service.
The government said the exercise would produce a clean payroll reflecting only those genuinely employed and actively serving, generating fiscal savings that could be redirected to service delivery.
