The ghost workers syndrome has been a menace across all tiers of government for years which has affected the Nigerian economy. Annually, millions of naira is siphoned from government coffers through salary payments to non-existing employees who have fraudulently been listed in the payroll system This study examined the effect of ghost workers in Nigerian publicly service using Abuja municipal council as a reference. The study made used of descriptive and survey designs to carry out the study. The respondents were fifty (50) civil servants drawn from five federal ministries located within the Abuja municipal council. The data obtained was facilitated by administering a research questionnaire of twenty (60) items to ninety-six (60) civil servants, having a response rate of 83.3%. The data obtained were analyzed with the use of non-parametric technique of analysis of chi-square (X2). Among other things, the findings of the study revealed that the public service outputs are not commensurate with the expected input as the case may be; there is no positive impact of government payroll  policy implementation on workers’ attitude toward job performance in Nigerian civil service; and the payroll policy implementation has no positive effect on workers’ job satisfaction in Nigerian public service. From the empirical evidence of the findings, the study concluded that there is negative effect of ghost workers in Nigerian public service productivity.

1.2        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.3        STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 

1.4    OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.5     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.3 LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECT MATTER

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 AREA OF THE STUDY 

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 

3.2 POPULATION AND DETERMINATION OF SAMPLE SIZE 

3.3 INSTRUMENTATION 

3.4 PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS

4.0 Data analysis, findings, and discussion

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 

REFERENCES