More than 3,000 people who were identified as “ghost workers” had their paychecks suspended as a result of a recent staff audit that was carried out throughout the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education, Health, and Agriculture, according to the Personnel Management Office (PMO).
The PMO clarified in a public statement: “The public is hereby informed that a staff audit was recently carried out as part of a routine exercise of the Personnel Management Office with the primary objective of cleaning up the Government payroll of absentee workers, otherwise known as “ghost workers.” According to the PMO, “ghost workers” are a persistent issue in the public sector that typically arises when employees abruptly quit their jobs.
According to the PMO, the audit identified more than 3,000 civil personnel who were not physically verifiable by audit teams that visited educational institutions, medical facilities, and agricultural offices around the country.
A list of “unseen staff” was created and sent to the relevant Ministries for evaluation and feedback. The status of those employees whose whereabouts were the subject of comments was checked and confirmed as it was observed. Following all of this, a final list of “unseen staff” was created and distributed to the relevant Ministries, who were advised that their wages would be suspended for the month of September if no additional responses were received from the staff members in question. According to the PMO, this was the reason why 3024 federal officers’ salaries were suspended for the month of September.
The PMO further noted that in order to have their pay restored, those who resurface after their salaries have been suspended will need to show documentation of their continued employment as active government officials, such as supervisor attestations, attendance records, maternity leave, or sick leave.
It is not unusual to discover civil servants enrolling at educational institutions without following the proper procedures for gaining study leave, or to hear them claim to be ill and taking some conventional therapies. As an update, as of October 9, 2024, two weeks after the wage halt began, just 882 of the 3,024 salaries that were stopped have been vetted and certified as normal civil personnel. This means that more than 2,142 civil servants are still unaccounted for. The statement went on to say that the PMO will soon be holding similar exercises for the Security Forces, the remainder of the Civil Service, and the retirees.
The PMO also revealed that the Ministry of Public Service is developing digitization plans, which include installing payroll-connected biometric time attendance systems.
This will guarantee that, unless an excuse is given to reinstate your wage, the system will automatically stop paying a civil servant if they fail to clock in for more than a month. The PMO concluded, “Civil servants are advised to follow the current procedures in accordance with the General Orders and PSC Regulations when they intend to stay away from work due to ill-health, maternity, further studies, or even resignation.”
