{President John Magufuli has instructed accounting officers in government ministries, departments and agencies as well as local governments to conduct human resource audit and get rid of ghost workers on government payroll in the next 15 days.
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Permanent Secretaries, District Executive Directors and Chief Executives of public institutions who will fail to identify and erase names of ghost workers in this month’s payroll will be charged in the courts of law, he warned.
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.
President Magufuli broke away from tradition by giving a speech during the swearing-in ceremony. There has been no speech making during such events in the past.
The Head of State challenged the new RCs to act tough on local authorities in their respective regions, noting with concern that most of the rot in the public service involved councils.
According to Dr Magufuli, a mini-survey conducted on 26,900 employees in 14 councils in Singida and Dodoma regions found out that there were 202 ghost workers who were paid salaries in December.
“Out of the 202 ghost workers, six had resigned from duty while 27 employees, who were still on the payroll, had either been incarcerated or deceased. Eight were sacked, 158 had retired and three were on unpaid leave.
“We have over 180 councils countrywide and if this is the trend it is obvious that roughly 1bn/- is paid each month for workers who do not exist. I thus direct accounting officers to get rid of these ghost workers in the next fifteen days or face arraignment,” Dr Magufuli said in a matter-of-fact tone.
The situation could even be worse in those 14 councils since some 3,500 civil servants were not on their work stations when the study was conducted due to illness, truancy and some were on study-leave, the president noted.
“I am sure if the 3,500 workers were on their work stations during the survey, we could have come across more ghost workers in the 14 councils to the tune of around 400,” he noted.
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 government spends a lot of money to pay these ghost workers and, as a result, fails to channel funds to implement development projects,” the no-nonsense president remarked.
He thus directed the new RCs to supervise District Executive Directors in their respective regions to ensure that within the next fortnight, ghost workers are identified and scraped from the payroll.
“I appointed you to the positions because I have a lot of trust in you in helping me to serve the people. As chairpersons of regional defence and security committees, you ought to discharge your duties without fear,” Dr Magufuli told the regional commissioners.
He as well reminded the leaders to implement the ruling party’s manifesto by addressing challenges facing people such as hunger and insecurity. “It does not make sense that the police have to provide escorts for people travelling within the country in some regions due to insecurity. I believe I have appointed the right people to deal with these issues,” he stated.
President Magufuli also spoke against laziness among the young generation and instructed that they must be urged to work to boost productivity.
Meanwhile, the Vice-President, Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, said the 50m/- revolving fund pledged by the government for each village will come into operation at the start of the next fiscal year in July.
After they were sworn-in, the RCs signed the integrity pledge, which the Commissioner of Ethics, Judge Salome Kaganda, said is meant to bind public leaders to abide by laid down ethics.
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