Action ordered on Zim's ghost workers

by Staff reporter

2012 March 06 13:13:47 | 806 Views

The Parliament of Zimbabwe has ordered the Public Service Commission to deal with the problem of 'ghost workers' as a matter of priority.

'Ghost workers' are workers who are listed on the payroll of a Government Department even though they do not work there. They are often the friends or relatives of higher ranking officials

The Parliament said the audited report for ghost workers was well overdue and must be presented as quickly as possible.

It said the issue of ghost workers was audited three years ago and it still had not yet received any report despite a lot of money being spent on the project.

It is estimated by the Parliament that 'ghost workers' were taking US$75 million from the Government. It is also thought to be political with politicians redirecting money which might benefit the whole country to their political campaigns.

One MP, Settlement Chikwinya said that in 2007, 3,500 ghost workers were found to be employed by the Government during a period of political turmoil.

"The party in Government saw it fit to use the Public Service funds as a campaigning tool for their members and for them to carry out their political activities while campaigning for the party at the same time," Mr Chikwinya said.

"These people, up to this day continue to occupy Government positions.

"Because of misgovernance in the Government, we ended up having a large number of employees in Government which are not being accounted for because there are some people who occupy multiple positions."

He said although the audit drew large amounts of money from the Department of finance, the results were associated with corruption within the Public Service as a result of these people is being employed."

"We have to reward those people who are working by getting rid of the ghost workers," he said.

"The results must be brought the house so that the nation can work towards service rewards."

Ghost

Source: psnews