Abstract
Nigerian subnational governments are caught in a familiar bind: wage bills that keep growing, revenues that remain volatile, and not nearly enough money left over to build anything. Enugu State is a good example of this pattern. This article examines how staff verification exercises, specifically the combination of biometric data capture and physical attendance confirmation, have contributed to wage bill sustainability in the state, and considers what those contributions tell us about the broader project of Public Financial Management (PFM) reform at the subnational level. Drawing on secondary fiscal data, government reports, and a body of academic and practitioner literature, the analysis is organised around three theoretical anchors: fiscal sustainability theory, public expenditure management theory, and principal-agent theory. Together, these frameworks help explain both why payroll fraud arises in the first place and why it is so stubbornly difficult to eliminate for good. The article argues that Enugu State's verification initiatives produced real, measurable reductions in personnel costs and contributed to meaningful improvements in budget credibility, but that political resistance, fragmented data systems, and limited institutional capacity have prevented the state from fully capitalising on what it started. The article concludes with a set of policy recommendations aimed at consolidating the gains already achieved and extending the reform agenda in a direction that can sustain them.
Keywords
Public Financial Management, Wage Bill Sustainability, Staff Verification, Ghost Workers, Fiscal Space, Enugu State, Nigeria, Recurrent Expenditure, Subnational Governance, Principal-Agent Theory