The Sunday Mail
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira
Senior Government officials are under investigation for allegedly hiring ghost workers so that they fraudulently draw these “employees’” monthly salaries.
Among the targets are the Salaries Service Bureau and the ministries of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development; Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment; and Primary and Secondary Education.
If fraud is proved, all those involved will either be sacked or face prosecution.
This follows revelations by a staff audit last week that at least 3 000 civil servants -mainly teachers – were drawing monthly salaries despite not reporting for duty.
Some were getting paid twice while others had been unjustly promoted.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira told The Sunday Mail that the scale of “ghost workers” could be much more than previously thought.
She said her ministry would soon transmit its findings to the Office of the President and Cabinet.
“We have other cases in various ministries where we established ghost workers. We have such cases in the ministries of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment; and Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development; as well as the Salaries Service Bureau.
“Obviously, disciplinary action will be taken against those 3 000 civil servants who were exposed by the March physical head-count, and action to be taken will depend on the nature of the case. We have Public Service
To Page 6
From Page 1
Regulations (Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000) and all of them will be charged under this SI.”
Government commissioned the audit in March 2015 to determine its exact staff complement as civil service salaries were gobbling 80 percent of revenue.
Estimates put the number of people employed by Government at between 200 000 and 300 000.
Auditors have established that hundreds of people were still on Government’s payroll despite having left the service.
In one case, an ex-civil servant migrated to Australia, but was still being paid.
Over 63 schools were being run by two headmasters who have been getting allowances that come with the posts.
Some teachers have also been receiving double salaries.
Last week, about 3 000 civil servants were struck off the payroll after it was discovered they were not at their workstations.
Their salaries will only be re-instated if they prove their employment status.
Minister Mupfumira said: “We were not targeting teachers, the head-count we carried out in March was for the entire Civil Service. But from our observations, we noted that teachers were the ones who were duping Government.
“Obviously, we need to probe the senior officials who manned these districts or provinces because all this happened under their noses. We have district and provincial officers in the education sector and their responsibilities are to monitor what will be happening at these schools.”
She continued, “For instance, when our audit teams were on the ground, villagers told them that some schools had closed well before the official dates. At one school, we discovered that there were only teachers for grades one up to four, and the same teaching staff would double as teachers for the remaining grades.
“These teachers would then get double salaries. So, the question is: how was this happening when we have senior officials in those areas?”
A Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry official told The Sunday Mail that those found guilty would likely face severe punishment for fleecing taxpayers of millions of dollars.
Said the official: “The Public Service Regulations (SI 1 of 2000) basically focus on the conduct and conditions of civil servants while on duty. We have to carry out disciplinary action against these senior Government officials and those who were carrying out fraudulent activities will likely be discharged from service.
“We have to bring these matters to the police, considering that these are criminal offences. In the education sector, we have to probe those provincial officers and, possibly, these will have to be brought before the courts. They were aware of the criminal activities at these school.”
