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The public sector is the largest employer in Liberia. An estimated 65,000 civil servants are working in ministries and agencies of the government across the country.
But ‘ghosts’ employees have never ceased from being on the payroll of the Government of Liberia (GOL). This has been an age-old problem.
Recently, the Liberian government through the Civil Service Agency (CSA) has again taken steps to combat this menace by blocking over 6,000 ghost employees from the government’s national payroll.
The CSA is an agency of the government entity responsible for improving the human resource, service delivery, effectiveness, and efficiency of the civil service. Also, it entails planning human capacity needs, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, and career development of civil servants.
On September 5, 2024, the Director General of the CSA, Josiah Joekai said the entity in its ongoing GOL payroll sanitization exercise has uncovered alarming discrepancies.
According to Director Joekai, “the government has lost L$ 89.3 million and US$ 1.6 million to these discrepancies annually.” He added that some individuals have been trusted to do right by their conscience and country but chose to defraud the nation.
Categories of ghost employees
Joekai said that the GOL, aware of the challenges its employees in rural areas face in accessing banking facilities and the cost associated with traveling to access banks, rolled out salary payments using mobile money transfer through the Lonestar Cell MTN and Orange GSM companies.
He explained they requested the two companies to produce transaction histories of all salaries paid to GOL employees using their platforms. He added that Lonestar has started providing several months of payments to the CSA while Orange has assured the CSA that they will deliver statements of recent transactions.
“The total of 4,738 transactions were done in Liberian and United States dollar currencies. Of this amount, we were able to verify that only 3,884 transactions matched employees’ names that were on the payroll and whose names also matched the names associated with the Lonestar MTN numbers,” Joekai said.
He said monthly, 166 individuals got paid part of their salaries in Liberian dollars (LRD) via mobile money, while the U.S.D. component was through the bank because they could not access the LRD through the same banks.
“This category of payment represents L$ 2.7 million and US$57,000 monthly. L$ 33.1 million and US$684,630 are the annual amounts for this. That’s the amount we are paying to individuals who were made to believe that they can access part of their salaries using banks and the other part using mobile money.”
Businesses are also on the government’s payroll.
The Director General said, “We also discovered that payments were made to agents and businesses. Seven agents or businesses representing 22 transactions, totaling L$294,000 and US$4,300.6 monthly. Multiplying this by 12 months, you will have L$ 3.5 million and US$52,000. That is the amount yearly we have been paying from our payroll account to businesses.”
Another category of transaction is names of individuals on the payroll that do not match with names associated with mobile money accounts.
“This category represents up to 220 transactions. Monthly, a total of L$ 1.3 million and US$27,543 are paid from our GOL mobile money payroll to these people. Multiply that by 12 months. A total of L$15.7million and US$330,516 are being paid just in this category,” Joekai said.
The government’s actions
However, the CSA’s boss announced that the names of businesses involved will be exposed, masterminds will be named and those used to carry out those malicious acts will be shamed, and forwarded for investigation.
“The 166 individuals receiving part of their salaries through mobile money and the other part through banks will be blocked immediately pending further notice,” Joekai said.
“The 220 whose names on the payroll do not match those associated with mobile money accounts will also be blocked immediately,” he added.
He said the seven agents or businesses that have received payments to their accounts will be turned over to the appropriate authority for further investigation.
“Individuals responsible for sending salaries to 223 mobile money accounts, but are not on the payroll will be forwarded to the relevant authority for investigation,” the head of the CSA stated.
He also added that very soon the CSA and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFPD) will categorically inform the Liberian people about the amount of money that has been wasted on ghosts, fake names, double dippers, and those getting salaries from two or more spending entities’ payrolls.
National Civil Service Testing Center to be launched to curb payroll fraud in public service
Meanwhile, Josiah Joekai has disclosed plans for the launching of the National Civil Service Testing Center in Liberia this year.
According to Joekai, the center will be equipped with all modern testing technologies and will have to certify every qualified person who is to be hired newly before such a person can initiate any hiring processes in the public service.
He said the first requirement for the certificate is that a person will have to be computer literate.
“You want a job in the public service in the coming months, you have to start going to computer school. Because, you will sit before the computer, write your test, remain there and get graded and your result comes to you. If you fail, it will tell you that you have failed, with your results. If you pass, it tells you, you have passed and your automated certificate signed by the director general will be sent to your email, printed, and given to you.”
He added, “Once you receive the certificate, you can begin the job search. But without that, do not go to any entity or talk to anybody regarding job issues.”
Joekai said this is part of their efforts to bring decency and integrity to public service. So that government can have the deserving potential, efficiency, and capability to deliver on the mandate of the people.
What is the civil society saying about this?
Anderson Miamen, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an anti-graft institution, Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) said ghost names on the government’s payroll are a longstanding issue in Liberia because there are corruption cases surrounding how civil servants enter the system.
He spoke in an exclusive interview with DUBAWA in Monrovia, on Sep. 18, 2024.
According to Miamen, “Corruption is so entrenched in the public sector. Different players across different ministries and agencies collude to defraud the system.”
He described the sector as a ‘cartel,’ saying those ghosts do not get on the payroll by themselves. He said people who supervise employment and salary payment play a huge role in conspiring to get these ghosts in the system and sustain them also.
“Those who are Human Resource Officers (HR) in many of these institutions and those overseeing employment, they play a huge role in this. If all we do is talk about removing the ghosts and we cannot get rid of the HRs and other people who bring these people in the system and sustain them, then we have a problem.”
Miamen lauded the CSA for the steps taken to weed out ghosts names but said the situation will keep recycling if those found liable are not held accountable for their actions.
He said, after perpetrators are dismissed, the value they have made the country to lose should be quantified and get them to pay it or go to jail.
“There has to be a robust and credible process to get the ghosts off the payroll. People should be named, shamed and jailed,” Miamen said.
