List of ghost workers said to include members of the armed forces

MASVINGO – More than 19 500 ghost workers were unearthed during the initial stages of the civil service audit which ended on Friday, December 18, amid fears that the figure might double as the inclusive government gears up to get rid of ghost government workers.The civil service audit which was launched last month by the Ministry of Public service has opened a can of worms with initial findings showing that even within the armed forces there are ghost soldiers and ghost policemen.

Senior officials within the ministry who spoke on condition they were not named say a total of 19 519 were discovered during the initial stages of the exercise. Basing remuneration of the $100 agreed on by the coalition government in February the ghost workers so far unearthed are earning nearly $2 000 000 per month or $18 million between March and November.

Of this figure the bulk of ghost workers were from the ministry of youth employment creation and empowerment where 13 000 employees were recruited into the civil service without following proper government recruitment procedures.

“We have so far discovered 19 519 ghost workers but this is just the initial stage of the exercise,” said one of the officials.

“We are going to come up with an exact figure once all reports have been reconciled. As you know, the programme only ended yesterday”.

“We also discovered that there were ghost workers within the army and the police and to us it was shocking”.

According to information at hand it has emerged that soldiers who went away without official leave of absence and other deserters were still on the government payroll.

It is suspected that senior army officers might have been pocketing the salaries of the ghosts or that former employees were still receiving salaries years after they went AWOL

Eliphas Mukonoweshuro the Minister of the Public Service could not be drawn into commenting on the issue but dismissed allegations that the civil service audit was a witch-hunting exercise.

“We want to establish a cycle for government workers from their date of engagement up to retirement”, said Mukonoweshuro who is the Gutu South legislator.

“This is not a witch-hunting exercise”.

Saviour Kasukuwere the Minister of Youth Employment Creation and Empowerment has already admitted illegally recruiting over 13 000 workers without following government stipulated recruitment procedures.

Sources say the ghost workers from Kasukuwere’s ministry were youths who were initially hired by Zanu-PF to campaign for the party ahead of last year’s elections.

After the party failed to pay the youths it allegedly just off-loaded them onto government and they started to receive their salaries as civil servants.

The inclusive government has been battling to give its workers decent salaries since its consummation in February this year.

The existence of ghost workers has been cited as a reason why the government had a huge wage and salary bill which made it difficult for the state to properly remunerate its workers.

During the civil service census enumerators visited every government institution where they demanded among other things letters of appointment, birth certificates, proof of educational qualifications and identity cards from government employees.

Written By: Owen Chikari

Additional Reporting: The Zimbabwe Times