By Madi Jobarteh
It was in early 2017 that the Government first lamented about the existence of ghost workers as part of its civil service reforms. It vowed to weed out such faceless workers. PMO said at the time that the exercise world start in March 2017. They said the objective was to improve payroll integrity by ensuring that only staff working are on Government payroll.
They said the staff audit would be conducted in two phases, starting with the Greater Banjul Area first. Next to follow was West Coast Region, and then all other regions. The question is, did that happen thoroughly and diligently? Where is the full final report?
In 2018, the Government announced that after a nationwide audit, over 3000 absentee or ghost workers were identified. They said the audit was conducted by PMO in collaboration with IFMIS.
The Minister of Information at the time Demba A Jawo said the total payments for absentee employee salaries amounted to over D10.4M monthly, or over D125.3M annually. He said from June 2017, those salaries would stop.
But he also said that, as part of the exercise, a total of over D124 thousand was recovered from employees who were seconded or transferred yet their names still appeared on the payroll. He said there was still an outstanding balance of almost D780 thousand to be recovered. Has this been fully recovered? Government must update.
The point is why is it that in 2024, six years after the first exercise there are still more than 2000 ghost workers in the system? Were the 2017/18 exercises not adequate or thorough? Are there still loopholes in the Government recruitment process and staff register? In this day of digitalization how come ghost workers still exist?
The continued existence of ghost workers is not only costing millions of dalasi hence denying deserving sectors much needed cash, but it is also undermining the efficiency of the civil service hence weakening service delivery. This is because while such positions appeared filled they are actually empty hence institutions are operating with less capacity. What this means is that goods and services expected to be delivered are not delivered hence denying citizens basic rights.
The question that still needs answers is why do ghost workers exist in a system that supposedly has checks and balances? The Government should reveal its 2017/18 staff audit report so that citizens can see how and why ghost workers exist?
2017 https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/govt-to-root-out-ghost-workers-in-civil-service
2018 https://fatunetwork.net/gambia-government-eliminates-3000-ghost-workers/
2024 https://standard.gm/pmo-detects-over-2000-ghost-workers-in-civil-service/
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