With the increase in budget allocation for public servants’ salaries, the Treasury Department have been asked on what is being done in addressing the issue of ghost names on the payroll.
Executive Director of Institute of National Affairs Paul Barker during the budget lockup yesterday said while there is certainly the need to get more teachers and health workers, there are areas around the expenditures where there is justification for right sizing rather than downsizing.
“I know there was an exercise recently with the Justice Department, especially courts where they found quite a number of ghosts in the system,” Mr Barker said.
“Although I know the Department of Personnel Management and Finance have a few ghosts, when you do have a little sample of people around, you’ll find that they got quite a number of ghosts in their own family on the payroll. So, we know there is a significant number of ghosts in the public sector.”
Acting Deputy Secretary of Treasury Budget and Financial Management Mrs Napa Hurim in response said as part of payroll cleansing, the Treasury Department along with DPM and Finance Department carried the staffing and establishment review this year in order to clear out ghost names on the payroll.
“Through this exercise, we’ve identified names and we’re cleaning up the payroll,” Mrs Hurim said.
“We’ve corrected this out in the Treasury Department as a sample and it was successful and we’re rolling that out on a larger scale.”
“The biggest challenge is at the provincial level. It is easier for us at the national level to work with line agencies but for subnational level, we have to go down and do all the work with them,” Mrs Hurim added.