The payment of salaries to thousands of ghost workers occupying various positions in the Gambia’s civil service has been stopped by new administration of President Adama Barrow, Demba Ali Jawo, minister of Information has revealed.
Mr Jawo said an audit exercise carried by the administration to clean up the country’s civil service uncovered over 3,000 ghost workers who were being paid monthly salaries from the public coffers. He added that the government has since June 2017 stopped paying the wages of 3,146 people on its payroll.
“The main objectives of the exercise were to reduce the wage bill by identifying and eliminating potential ghost workers from the payroll, recover wrongful salary payments and as well, update the personnel records of civil servants and security agencies,” Mr Jawo told reporters during a presser held at GRTS building in Kanifing, about 7km away from Banjul.
An audit of the civil service was held from March and May 2017 by the country’s Personnel Management Office (PMO) with the support of the International Financing Management Systems (IFMS) II Project to eliminate ghost workers fraud and allow authorities to have a clear picture of government staff.
Minister Jawo said the audit has revealed a wide spectrum of malpractices, resulting to a total payment of D10, 445,612 per month and 125,347,346.76 yearly.
As a sizeable amount of money was involved in the payroll fraud, its consequences have been disastrous for the public service. These corruption practices were also extended to another level due to fraudulent claims and expenses for employees who were seconded or
transferred.
Good outcome/
Very good result, but it mustn’t stop there. Lets remember that the A(F)PRC also uncovered ghost workers from the Jawara administration; so audit exercises must be carried out periodically to stamp this corrupt practice out and severely punish perpetrators.
I think we should have a fully staffed independent staff audit unit (if not already established) that could conduct unannounced targeted or general staff audits periodically, because it seems ghost workers are a culture of our system. Just too many people like living above their legitimate means and that could be a factor of this culture and type of fraud in public office.
We must stamp it out because it’s a serious impediment to development, as it constantly hormorages vital but scarce financial resources from the system. A D125m+ annually (for God knows how long) leakage from our coffers is serious money lost. Gambians must change; not just the civil servants; all of us because we are all complicit, in some way.
About Ghost workers: Jollofnews 9th March 2018
Not GHOST WORKERS but deliberate scam and thief syndicate of government functionaries. Let’s come out with names.
This issue boils my heart. To allow people to receive the taxpayers’ money without delivering the service. That’s the most grotesque disservice to a nation.
The culprits:
1) Jaliba Kuyateh. He was a ghost worker, a deliberate thief who was receiving the teacher’s salary without going to the classroom. His first loggerheads with the President Jammeh government that gave him the alternative of choosing between his JALI career of the teaching profession. He chose the former. Thus, his dire hatred for the Jammeh administration.
2) The NARI travelling paymaster. First-hand information we received in the late 80s through early 90s. He would include the dead and non-existing workers on the vouchers to hire individuals to sign. He would falsify petrol bills with the late Ousman Saho Filling-station in Kombo Brikama to draw from NARI funds. The Director, the petrol station owner and he would share the illicit deal which cost NARI millions of dalasis. Thus, the collapse of the initial WB project with the NARI through the Gambia government. This man is now the Alkalo of Kombo Faraba Banta.
3) The Kiang Kwinella-born Kassama Jobe, who was also a travelling paymaster also created hundreds of ghost workers with whom he swindled millions of dalasis leading to the collapse of the Rural Development Project (RDP) project. Farmers never received the machinery, seeds and fertilizers. The project collapsed.
4) The Bansang Hospital Accountant Momodou Jarju, who recently contested the Kombo Brikama NAM seat. He swindled the hospital of hundreds of thousands of dalasis, built three luxurious compounds in Brikama before leaving the job.
5) The late Abou Denton, Accountant General, swindling millions of dalasis through his gateway accountants in different departments, sub treasuries at divisional headquarters, who created ghost workers, to illicitly amass millions to give their boss (Abou Denton), his lion’s share. Thus, the local(area) councils failed to accomplish their projects.
6) The late Ousaionou Njie with the BB Darbo syndicate at the then GCDB, where ghost farmers were creditors. They swindled millions of dalasis, the bank failed and finally closed.
These and many more really burn/ache my heart. My late Dad, like thousands of rural farmers, was always a poor rural farmer who paid his taxes with due respect to government regulations and laws.
His only “crime” was that he couldn’t read or write, never received accurate information and only believed in Allah(SWT) to give the right judgement.
Soli, your so called moral outrage will not detract anyone from trying to recover our millions of dollars that went to Kanilai Family Farms, Kanilai International Group, Moroccan, Lebanese and American business ventures.
Most of these ghost workers were just crossing over from Cassamance to collect salaries and disappear into the jungle. Now they have all disappeared without trace, hence ghost workers! Ignoring the chaos and mayhem of the last 22 years will not make it go away, and there is an absolute determination among Gambians that those responsible must be exposed and made to pay. Nothing you can do about that, and as said earlier, you can rant and rave, but Jammeh and his cohorts will remain in ignominy for betraying Gambia.
Well said my brother. The truth have to be told just as some of our brethren suffering from selective myopia and amnesia, who could remembered or see the ills during Jawara era but totally blinded or indifferent to the ills during Jammeh’s dictatorship are branching their hypocrisy and dishonesty to the art of naming and shaming others. To name only those who allegedly committed those crimes before Jammeh’s misrule but not naming a single alleged perpetrator during Jammeh’s 22 years in power is no less grosteque disservice to our nation than those named. To condemned, named and shamed these 6 individuals without acknowledging the millions of dollars siphoned off illegally by Jammeh and his cronies could never be considered a noble act nor could it ever be considered an act of honesty, fairness or partiality in the execution of the truth,nothing but the truth. Those who praise Jammeh for his actions have no moral justification to condemn anybody, hence they should be the condemned. No rant, rave, lies or one sided commentary can absolve Jammeh from being other than who he was….. a heartless dictator who robed, raped, tortured, force disappeared and killed his own people including family members.
Today technology is available to control cash flow-cash in, who get what, who used what,who serve what. All activities can be control in to one technology that will monitor each entities within and even outside government perimeter. This technology makes our jobs more easier than pilling up papers, this technology only needs experts to work on it and security within the infrastructure of the technology in order to handle datas flow system, this is the only way to quickly identify any potential risk that may hamper financial sector of the government of the Gambia before it get too late.
We’ll continue to expose the thieves and culprits during the Jawara and Barrow USELESS eras. In as much as their blind-folded surrogates continue to deny and defend, we’ll expose them for their HORRENDOUS governance. Being very SELFISH and USELESS, there is absolutely nothing that the Gambian people have benefitted from during the 31 years of the PPP misrule and the 1 year 3 months mis-governance of the INEFFICIENT, CORRUPT and CORRUPTIBLE administration.
Let the surrogates USELESSLY continue to defend the indefensible, the Gambian people especially the people in the Kombos and most rural areas have started to distance themselves from this INEPT, TRIBALIST, CORRUPT bunch of INEFFICIENT IDIOTS!
The continuous energy and water outages/shortages, the uncontrollable rising of prices of ALL commodities and services, the shortages coupled with price hikes of education bills and the very naked SELFISH nature of Barrow, Ousainou Darbo, Amadou Sanneh by sending their children to schools in The USA while the average Gambian is deny her/his right to scholarships; is an eye-opener to all.
These have been reiterated at all the recent APRC rallies/meetings. Gambians have already regretted losing President Jammeh who gave to all and sundry and sent hundreds to study abroad. He’s no comparison/match to these SELFISH BARBARIANS.
Raping and stealing coupled with doing absolutely nothing should be brought at the door of old PPP henchmen most especially Omar jallow(OJ)who raped and impregnated a Sierra-Leonean- born magistrate.
Cases of sexual exploitation of serving female soldiers of the GNA, some of which resulted to tragic consequences in futile efforts to cover up possible pregnancies, will soon be heard by the TRC. Perhaps, one of the reasons some are objecting to its establishment.
I am listening to the Imam Fatty response to OJ’s stupid and idiotic attack on him. I wish to congratulate Imam Fatty for exposing one of the most notorious womanizers in the PPP administration.
Please slot into this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/-XrMgD16ZLo
Babu, it’s laughable; that immoral hypocrisy & devilish behavioural traits as the modus operandi for some people (Almunafiqun – Qur’anic) are evidently exhibited & manefested in all walks of life & (at various) age(s); even though we (pretentious) parade out & about (daily) in society, calling oneself (/ourselves) as “Muslim (pious) & Godly”; SURELY the “Day of Reckon” WILL dawn with us all, as humans & mortal beings; this doesn’t exclude (any) the satan “devils in human flesh & shape” among us here on EARTH too….
It’s the humanity right to “freedom of expression”, which is regained by the people Nation of the Gambia, from the kanilai 22 years Evildom, which gives us all (everyone, including Babu, Abdoulie Fatty, Bajaw, etc) currently our rights, to own our (diverse/divergent/different) opinions on issues; even though, some of our utterances/narratives on some of the events AREN’T necessarily accurate/factual on most/all of cases…
Devil yaya Evileness is an idol worshipper, who sacrificed human beings & body parts in rituals as being revealed in the Mile 2 prison inmates murders, for example; both Abdoulie Fatty & Babu Soli, believe & accepts that Devil yaya Evileness is a “Muslim” despite the fact being the contrary…
One like Abdoulie Fatty aided & abetted the Evil kanilai Murderdom actively until Abdoulie “fell from grace” with the kanilai Ibliza yaya DRACULA master; if yaya Devil, who is a human being sacrificing idol worshipper, can be free to call itself a Muslim, why not somebody too just like Baba Trawally the Ahmadi; all one (we) got to do is to engage & debate with the Ahmadis & counter their arguments on the verdict of the Holy Qur’an; & blossom each other’s hearts for enlightenment & GENUINE love of (God &) humanity; living sacrosanct in peaceful harmony & coexist in tranquility….
The 1981 kukoi devil event wasn’t OJ’s making but the devilish satan kukoi Samba Sanyang & bandits; most of the dead were due to lack of knowledge of operation & by the (mis/mal)handling of the weapons looted by kukoi & the murderous bandits which were irresponsibly handed out recklessly; Abdoulie Fatty’s figures of dead are IRRESPONSIBLE; to say the least; we are all living witnesses amongst other issues; both devils (Wassadung) kukoi & (kanilai) yaya all equally had the LEGITIMATE options CONSTITUTIONALLY, just like Jawara, Sallah, Dibba, & everyone else, etc, to engage in civility & politics, to vie for political offices to be elected to office; but instead both (kukoi & yaya) murderers resorted to Devilish tendencies, costing innocent lives, properties & livelihoods; whosoever tries to divert attention on the facts & blaming others can only be HYPOCRITIC ALMUNAFIQUN indeed…
Abdoulie fatty will see the Ahmadis acquire the TV LICENCE application granted subsequently, if they meet the requirements; the Gambia statutory Constitution says, if Bajaw, Babu/Abdoulie have their freedom of “belief & worship” to call themselves Muslims, anybody else too got the very same right to their own beliefs & can call themselves as Muslims if they believe so; the Holy Qur’an is the Judge between us, on the relevant areas where the various religious sects differ on; ONLY debates in harmonious civility can be the lines of actions & not suppression of their rights nor threats of violence which is detrimental to the whole community including the aggressive satans posing as imams/opinion leaders & their families too…
Abdoulie Fatty can go & rejoin the mfdc rebels in his birth place in Cassamace, if he desires so but the Gambia will NOT be taken to ransom again after the Evil kanilai Murderdom Dark Age period; Abdoulie & the SIC should know Allah will account them on the alms, charities & donations being handed over to them whilst in position of trust on behalf of the Gambia Muslim ummah…
Abdoulie Fatty should be quiet if he have nothing good, truthful or reflective to say on subjects of national importance. He was one of those so called Imams who used their pulpit to exalt Yahya Jammeh to Godly status. He bored witness to the various parties in Kanilai where half ”BUM-BACK-CLAD” skin-bleached bitches paraded their thing in opened auction canteens of sexual abuse and he had no qualms with that. He used his pulpit to gather his flocks under the umbrella of dictatorship using faith as a mobilizing mechanism. He used his pulpit to deride, castigate, impugn other scholars who stood up to the misuse of our religion to further one’s standing in the eyes of the Gambian people. The man is a hypocrite, a liar and an opportunist who care only about his own pocket but not the Gambian people or the Gambian nation. Praise Jammeh as you like Fatty, because what is left for you to say not already said. Allah knows all things best.
Bajaw, Jollofnews 12th march 2018
Stop your hypocritical/wrong interpretation of the Holy Qu’ran which you are doing at your own taste. I have listened to better Islamic scholars who are more versatile in the Qu’ran and Haddith. You cannot come with your simplistic, incongruent interpretations of the Qu’ran and believe you are dealing with novices.
Imam Fatty challenged the novice womanizer illiterate, Omar Jallow (OJ) to an open debate which I’m sure he(OJ) will never consent to. He knows his obscure horrendous past as a member, a minister of the PPP government. He knows he cannot challenge the learned Imam Fatty.
As for Bajaw, you are wicked! Those who continue to deny the 1981 genocide on our innocent citizens. Those who want to bury the gruesome, barbaric killing episode of our people perpetrated by the Senegalese invading forces commandeered by Ex-President Jawara, BB Darbo, Ex-President Abdou Diouf, Omar Jallow(OJ). Those who deny that over 800 civilians were unceremoniously dumped in mass unmarked graves in the Banjul cemetery in 1981. Those who deny that Haruna Jatta was shot in cold-blood in his own Gambian village, Kanilai by the Senegalese forces at the command of Barrow and Mai Fatty. You are just WICKED!
Bax,
Where can we put the functions of the TRRC in our three-tiered-administration; in the Legislature, the Executive or the Judiciary?
The constitution of this body is a sneaky urge by this INEPT, TRIBALIST, SELFISH, CORRUPT and CORRUPTIBLE administration to distract our attention from VERY BAD governance led by a clique of INEFFICIENT people.
The UNQUALIFIED Executive Secretary of TRRC, Baba Galleh, would only call on false witnesses to vet their anger against the APRC, her members and her gallant leader President Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa.
The TRRC is a gateway to squander meagre resources on niceties and come out with a useless and unworthy report that would later be dumped in one of Banjul’s filthiest lavatories!
The setting up, selection of officials, the useless propaganda tour around the country in order to receive per diem emoluments, headed by the uncouthed Justice Minister Tambedou, were all ploys to create a de facto organism within the judiciary which is illegal and unconstitutional.
The TRRC duplicates the services of the useless Commission of Inquiry and would only foster hatred and political/social persecution.
Nobody fears this illegal Council dented only on vilifying the APRC and her gallant people and leaders. We’ll hold our heads high and fight back any injustice and outright persecution of our Party members. Be rest assured!
Gambians want to secure their three (four) daily meals!
While prices of basic commodities are surging, while crimes and day-light banditry are rising, while our people are deported from Europe and the USA, while the fat-bellied Barrow functionaries are increasing their salaries and per diem emoluments, while farmers are still keeping their arms crossed to receive their money from their groundnut sales, while the TALES RETROGRESSIVE RETARDED COUNCIL(TRRC) will squander our resources, the Gambian people are yearning for the return of President Jammeh Babili Mansa, the Defender of our Sovereignty and our nationhood.
Please give us a break. After 22 years of supporting dictatorship you have nothing to say here but be quiet. Are the same damn Buba Soli that endorsed Yaya Jammeh’s killings, womanizing and stealing of our wealth? What a shame?
You haven’t carefully listened to Imam Fatty’s audio. That’s what you are good at. You extract half of the stories and set on with bla bla baseless analysis.I’m not very much interested in your responses to my postings. You may respond as many times as you wish. That’s up to you.
What I’m interested in is the current trend of politics in my country. Our APRC party is gradually gaining grounds as Gambians are grossly disappointed at the role of this INEPT, CORRUPT, CORRUPTIBLE, SELFISH, TRIBALIST administration in the deportation of our people from Europe and the USA. Their supporters are abandoning them in the interest of the deportees with whom the whole country sympathizes.
I have on several occasions cautioned you about my English. I have told you that I stopped learning this foreign language at the then Yundum college, many years ago. Nonetheless, my Saint Augustine’s Secondary School and Yundum College English is better articulated in syntax, lexis, grammar and orthography than your “Queen’s” English, Jack. You write bunkums full of uncountable errors. From now, I’ll correct all your postings, I bet you.
Besides, I’m better prepared in European and Gambian languages than you.
Buba Soli, true Gambians will never support your that damn APRC party that gave us help on earth. No more dictatorship in The Gambia. You and Imam Fatty should be investigated and if need be brought to face justice.
March 12, 2018 at 9:01 pm · Edit
Oj Exposed
Now we know that the minister is a Qadiyani and we will deal with him as such. He is a certified Kafir by the the unanimous decision of our Ulama. OJ was the head of the delegation to attend the heretic meeting of Qadiyanis in UK wasting our vital resources which some benevolent donors gave to our country to sustain out budget. What a waste by a transitional government which is suffering from budgetary problems.
Imam fatty was very right and his suspicions have now been confirmed by the video of his speech at the heretic gathering.
Now we know VOTING FOR PPP MEANS VOTING FOR THE QADIYANI INFLUENCE TO SPREAD IN THE GAMBIA.
Good work by the investigators. From my experience this might be the tip of the iceberg. If they look into pension payments, they will find out a huge number of dead claimants. Many pensioners die and their relatives continue to claim their pension paymentsbwhich is against the law. This continue unabated becaise most pensioners thump print their claim and the treasury don’t have finger print experts and some times out of expedience they allow unsigned pension claim forms to be processed.
They should also ho back some 20 years and identify the number of people in each paypoint vis-a-vis number on the payroll.
Also they should conduct payroll training for Permanent secretaries because they are supposed to be the ones to quickly identify payroll fraud. Each month, the treasury send a journal report that details all names paid under each ministry and department, analysing wages into Basic pay and allowance. If the perm sects are doing their job properly, they can easily sport any unauthorised additions, payment made to a staff who left or passed away, wrong allowances and even deductions. Each payment input sent to the treasury for processing must be signed or authorised by PS so they must be aware of all bona fide salary payments.