South Sudan begins biometric registration to curb ghost workers, exposing gaps in digital ID systems

JUBA — South Sudan on Tuesday launched a biometric registration exercise for public servants in Juba, as the government seeks to eliminate so-called ghost workers from the payroll and strengthen oversight of public spending in a country with limited digital public infrastructure.

The registration drive is aimed at improving the accuracy of workforce data, cleaning up payroll records, and enhancing transparency in public service delivery, as authorities struggle with weak human resource systems and the absence of a unified digital identification framework.

Officials say the initiative is a step toward modernising public administration, but analysts note that South Sudan remains without a national digital ID system, forcing the government to rely on fragmented, project-based biometric databases rather than an interoperable digital public good.

Speaking at the launch ceremony in Juba, Vice President and Chair of the Service Cluster Josephine Joseph Lagu said the exercise would ensure all public servants on the government payroll are properly accounted for.

“Together, we can build public service that is proportional, transparent, and accountable in the public service of South Sudan,” said Joseph.

She said the biometric registration marked a milestone in efforts to reform the public sector and improve accountability across government institutions.

“All the relevant institutions that have been working tirelessly to ensure that in the end we have an efficient, effective, and transparent public service,” she said.

“The journey to rebuild South Sudan requires that we have a fair, efficient, and transparent public service. Payroll reform is central to that effort because it affects every civil servant and every institution.”

For his part, Minister of Public Service Dak Duop Bichiok said the exercise was designed to update and cleanse personnel records to support the effective implementation of human resource management information systems.

“To enhance the payroll management and efficiency. The benefits of this initiative are significant. It will strengthen the payroll integrity by ensuring that the salaries are paid only to genuine employees,” Duop said.

He said the process would also create a credible database of public servants, improving planning and management in a system that has long relied on manual records.

Duop added that “it will help establish a credible database of all public servants, forming a solid foundation for better planning and management of human resources.”

“It will also enable the government to make more efficient use of limited public funds. I am aware that reforms of the spending plan raise concerns among employees.”

The biometric registration is being supported by the World Bank Group, which has backed similar payroll and public finance reforms in fragile and post-conflict states.

World Bank Country Manager for South Sudan Charles Undeland said the system would assign each civil servant a unique biometric identifier.

“Essentially, each public servant will get a unique biometric identifier, and this will allow the government to help eliminate, like I referred to before, duplicate records and the potential for fraud and ensure that, again, there’s a grip on who the cadre of public servants are,” said Charles.

Charles added that “it shouldn’t be going to public servants; it is indeed going to them and not to anything further or beyond that.

He said the initiative would support better financial planning by reducing waste and strengthening the government’s ability to manage its workforce.

Analysts say the exercise highlights both progress and limitations in South Sudan’s digital transformation. While biometric payroll systems can reduce fraud, the lack of a national digital ID — interoperable across civil registration, banking, taxation, and social services — continues to fragment state databases and limit the scalability of digital public goods.

Without a shared digital identity layer, experts warn that biometric systems risk becoming siloed projects rather than part of a coherent digital public infrastructure capable of supporting e-government services, mobile payments, and inclusive service delivery nationwide.