Gov’t has no clue of actual number of civil servants it pays – Bakasoro

JUBA – South Sudan government has no information in regards to how many civil servants it pays and that it does not actually know if all on the payrolls are working as required, a senior government official said.

South Sudan’s minister of public service Joseph Bangasi Bakasoro said during the 5^th Governors’ Forum that however that his ministry is working hard alongside partners to address the matter which has been blamed by ex-government officials on corruption.

“Lack of accurate head count, how many civil servants are there? How many are we paying? How many are both names? How many are dead but still on the payroll?” Bakasoro said.

“How many are paid without a position? So there are many challenges in that, especially between us and the ministry of finance. Who are you paying? Are you paying the right people or not?” he said.

The senior South Sudan government official said many people on government payroll are not delivering as expected and that it constitutes a worrying challenge to his ministry to address.

“Many people on the payroll are not productive, some are staying in the houses and then they just come and get the pay, so this is also a big challenge and to deal with that it needs time and efforts and planning,” he adds.

It is being said that most senior government officials add their relatives’ name event if they don’t work and in 2013, then minister of interior – Aleu Ayieny – said around 11,000 “ghost” names existed in the police payroll.