Ghost officials costs Mozambique US$250m

MAPUTO: Mozambique’s government said on Monday that it had identified 30,000 “ghost employees” in its civil service who cost US$ 250 million between 2015 and 2017.

Some of those on the government payroll, which accounts for 55 per cent of the poor African country’s state expenditure, did exist but were paid for jobs they did not undertake while others were dead or fictious.

“A proof- of-life test of the Mozambican civil service between 2015 and 2017 has detected around 30,000 ‘ghost’ employees costing the equivalent of US$ 250 million,” Civil Service Minister Carmelita Namashulua told the Mozambique State News Agency.

The biennial check probed around 348,000 workers, the minister said. — AFP