Jonglei stat pledges to eliminate ghost names in the payrolls

August 14, 2016 (BOR) – Hundreds of ghost names are expected to be eliminated in the payroll system in the newly created Jonglei state’s government institutions. The move is expected to reduce the financial constraints on the budget overstretching.

To curve down the existence of ghost names, and a huge number of absentees who are still paid, the cabinet resolved that the previous committees that were formed to conduct and oversee payment of salaries in the state, were to be extended to the counties to continue polishing and clean out ghost names in the payrolls.

After the siting on Thursday, the state minister of information, Akech Deng, told Sudan Tribune, that the state had had a lot of financial difficulties as all the state money goes to salaries.

“We have a huge chapter one, employees are more than anything, and even the ghost names are many. There are those who are paid like twice, or three times in the state, it becomes awesome,” the minister explained to Sudan Tribune over the weekend.

“If you have two jobs, you may not do a half of your job, so the government is taking measures to make sure that every civil servant should be in the right work place. Any ghost name should be screened out, so the council has extended the committees of payments until farther notice,” Deng explained on Thursday.

The state government formed payment committees three months ago to screen out ghost names in the ministries’ headquarters. These committees were said to have recovered thousands of money in the process, but the concerned officials from the finance ministry failed to tell the exact amount of money recovered, or the number of employees screened out by the committees.

Attempts made by Sudan Tribune to find out about the state grant that normally comes from the central government in Juba had not been successful. Even the total number of employees that existed in the state before this screening exercise, was not communicated either.

“All what we get from Juba goes to chapter one. Every now and then, there is money being recovered for people who don’t report to work, or may be from the ghost names,” Deng continued.

This month salaries would be paid through the committees, if possible, in the counties.

“The people in the counties are going to be paid by the committees, to make, if you are not at your work place, the government will not pay you. If you have two names in the government, know that you will only go home with one salary,” he cautioned.

The cabinet also thought of reshuffling the cashiers and account controllers who served in grades 3 to 5, so that this issue of ghost names is completely brought to an end.

“Cashiers and account controllers, from grade three to five will be reshuffled in the ministries, so that there is a change,” Deng noticed.

Among the key ministries under question, education was expected to be the major ministry in which people had either resigned without giving notice to the management, or served in other places, thereby creating doubling of names.

“In education a lot of work needs to be done, because many teachers are not at the work stations. They have resigned without giving their resignation or they are working with NGOs [Non-governmental Organizations],” Deng said.

(ST)