Sindh exchequer losing Rs10b yearly to 'ghost' workers

Islamabad: It is more than mildly amazing that nobody noticed that nearly 10 per cent of the Sindh government's workforce are "ghosts", a Pakistani daily said as it told authorities to think carefully about future recruitment policies as well as record-keeping.

An editorial in the News International yesterday said that stories of corruption on a massive scale are commonplace, but some stand above the rest.

"One such is the revelation that out of 401,388 people on the payroll of the Sindh government over 40,000 are ‘ghosts'. This is about 10 per cent of the workforce and it is more than mildly amazing that nobody has noticed this before," it said.

Sindh Information Minister Shazia Merri said the ghost workers cost the provincial exchequer around Rs10 billion (Dh403 million) annually.

"These ghosts haunt the police, the education departments, population welfare departments and the offices of labour and manpower," the editorial said.

"Apart from the ‘ghost' ghosts there are around 300 real ghosts, in that salaries have been paid to individuals who have been dead for years. Another 1,000 people have been discovered [to have] two government jobs," the editorial added.

It went on to say that all of this "must have been common knowledge across provincial government departments for years, decades perhaps".

"One might wonder what would be revealed if there was a human resources audit in all the other provinces as well. Somewhat unusually, this is a problem that is quantifiable and should be relatively easy to fix."

The editorial said that the ‘ghosts' have names, and it was now left to the Sindh government to take immediate action.

It added tongue-in-cheek: "The difficulty is likely to be that the ‘ghosts' will not be too happy at finding their incomes terminated, in which event we may expect ghostly protests to be held outside government offices across the province."

"Suffice for now just to plug the hole, stop the salaries of the ‘ghosts' and think carefully about future recruitment policies and record-keeping," it said.