‘Ghost’ employees

All government employees should have verified CNICs and a smart card should then be issued to them.


Editorial March 28, 2013
The figure of Rs1.39 billion is likely the tip of the iceberg. PHOTO: FILE

Much of the media attention on corruption tends to be personal, focusing on the crimes and misdemeanours of specific individuals while forgetting that the biggest corruption problem Pakistan faces today is systemic. An inquiry conducted in Punjab by the Controller General of Accounts found that the Punjab Accountant General made salary payments totalling Rs1.39 billion in the last financial year that went to “ghost” employees who exist only on paper. The payments were made using fake ID card numbers or the IDs of deceased persons. This allows government workers to draw double pay or gives politically-connected individuals a salary for which they have not worked.

The figure of Rs1.39 billion is likely the tip of the iceberg. A verification exercise the Sindh government carried out with NADRA in 2012 found that paying ghost employees was costing the provincial government Rs10 billion. As huge as this problem seems, the solution is quite simple. All government employees should have verified computerised national identity cards and a smart card should then be issued to them. Their salaries should be transferred to the smart cards and should be withdrawable at banks and ATMs. This will require a lot of effort from NADRA, which would have to disable the smart cards of deceased persons and increase vigilance within its own department.

Quite apart from the sheer unfairness of people drawing multiple salaries, the existence of ghost employees blocks job opportunities for deserving people. On paper, when the government already seems so overstaffed, it will be reluctant to hire more people, even though many of the employees exist only on paper. Working for government departments is the chief employment opportunity for the lower middle class and this is being stymied by ghost employees. It is time this rotten practice of paying “ghost” employees is rooted out.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2013.

COMMENTS (2)

Sabih Shad | 11 years ago | Reply

They are all being paid by the public, Their names and pays should be public information posted on a website.

abdussamad | 11 years ago | Reply

Technology can't solve this problem because the problem is with people.

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