{Regional Administrative Secretaries (RASs) have been directed to take stern action against those who incorporated ghost workers on the payroll systems in the district councils.}
The directive was issued by the Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, in Lindi during the first day of his working tour of Ruangwa District. He said regional authorities should conduct an exercise to identify all the culprits behind the scandal.
“Those who will be identified in the exercise should be punished in accordance with the Public Service Act,” said the premier after a briefing by the Lindi Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Godfrey Zambi.
Earlier, Mr Zambi said human resource audit conducted by authorities in Lindi Region last month unearthed a total of 57 public servants who have absconded from workplaces and seven ghost employees, who are costing the government 36m/- a month.
Last month, President John Magufuli instructed accounting officers in government ministries, departments and agencies as well as local governments to conduct human resource audits and get rid of ghost workers on government payroll within a 15-day period.
Dr Magufuli issued the directive in Dar es Salaam after swearing-in new regional commissioners as well as the Commissioner General of Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), Mr Alphayo Kidata and Director General of Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Mr Valentino Mlowola.
The audit, which was recently conducted in all regional authorities, discovered 7,795 ghost workers on the payroll system, costing taxpayers 7.5bn/-.
Deputy Minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Mr Suleiman Jaffo, said at the weekend that some of the ghost workers had started to repay the money that were being disbursed to them illegally.
Opening the Association of Local Authorities Tanzania ALAT meeting in Dodoma, Mr Jaffo directed top officials tin the local government to make sure that the salaries that were channelled to ghost workers were returned.
According to the deputy minister, in some district councils, ghost workers had already started bringing back the money as per President John Magufuli’s directive.
“I have information that in one of the district councils, 5m/- had already been returned by ghost workers,’’ he noted without going into details.
Each month, the government spends between 549bn/- and 550bn/- on the wage bill.
Yet a part of the funds has been used to pay employees currently not serving the government. The president directed the new RCs to supervise District Executive Directors to ensure that ghost workers are identified and scrapped from the payroll in their respective regions.
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