ARUSHA regional government has in the last year incurred a loss of 8bn/- that was paid to ghost workers in two districts.
The more than 300 impostors were reportedly on Karatu and Arumeru district councils’ payrolls between 2015 and early this year.
Speaking to The Guardian yesterday, Arusha regional commissioner Felix Ntibenda said his office had by yesterday identified 320 fresh phantom workers masquerading to be working in the two districts.
According to Ntibenda, his office had seized the accounts of the impostors, adding that those found to be illegally on the two districts’ payrolls were now struggling to pay what they owed the government.
The move comes even as the government has embarked on a nationwide hunt for ghost workers and its directive that ghost workers repay the billions of shillings paid to them in their regions.
“Strange as it might sound, the truth of the matter is that we have detected 320 ghost workers with multiple bank accounts. We hope to establish even more culprits,” vowed Ntibenda.
In a report submitted to the President late last month, Arusha and Dar es Salaam topped the list of regions with the most ghost workers.
The government is said to have paid over 7.5bn/- of taxpayers’ money to 7,795 ghost workers in the local government since January.
According to Deputy Minister of State in the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance) Angela Kairuki, the ongoing drive to identify phantom workers had by April 3, this year, detected 7,795 ghost workers.
“Reports compiled from regional commissioners (RC) shows 4,317 of the phantom workers were detected between March 1 and April 4,” she said.
According to the minister, the number drastically shot from mid last month following a directive from President John Magufuli during the swearing-in of RCs that all local authorities must eliminate phantom workers.
Early this week, President Magufuli fired Shinyanga Regional Commissioner Anne Kilango-Malecela for issuing a statement that there were no ghost workers in the region, information that was alleged to be false.
The President also axed Shinyanga Regional Administrative Secretary, Abdul Dachi, for apparently misleading the RC into believing that all workers were genuine.
The axed regional commissioner will be ‘assigned other duties,’ according to the President.