Secretary to the Cabinet Joshua Kanganja says the decentralisation of the payroll management and establishment control (PMEC) system will help government to remove ghost workers from its payroll.
Dr Kanganja said today that the decentralisation of the PMEC system will make it possible for government to completely eliminate the problem of ghost workers.
He said PMEC will improve accuracy in the public service establishment, budgeting of salaries and wages while at the same time help detect and eliminate abuse.
He said government initiated the new payroll system after realising that the number of people being paid salaries was more than than the approved number of workers in the public service establishment.
“In most cases the numbers of those on the payroll were higher than those appearing in approved establishment registers,” he said.
Dr Kanganja was speaking in Mansa today when he launched Luapula province PMEC office, installed with automated equipment to facilitate the new payroll system.
He further said that the decentralised payroll system will reduce the costs of payroll management as accountants will no longer have to travel to Lusaka every month for salary inputs.
He said addressing the ghost workers problem and cutting down input costs will in the long run prevent budget overruns that could have resulted from Personal Emoluments expenditure incurred by government.
“Government is using PMEC system to establish a sustainable process and systems that will support effective monitoring of government employment policy, prevent budget overruns in personal emoluments expenditure, improve accuracy of the establishment, help detect and eliminate payroll abuse,” he said.
And Dr Kanganja has advised provincial administration controlling officers against abusing the decentralised payroll management and establishment control system.
He said permanent secretaries and other departmental heads should also ensure that only those employed by government are on the payroll, adding that stringent measures are in place to punish those who will attempt to abuse the new system.
The Luapula province PMEC system is the last of the eight decentralised systems that have been launched across the country.
ZANIS
Doc, it’s not just the ghost workers. What about the sleeping partners whose full-time work is day-dream in public and get paid for that and travel overseas at our expense? I mean RB Inc. We must find a way fo firing politicians who have no idea of what to do with their offices. That means ALL politicians in the MMD. What do we pay them for? I’m serious.
Start with Thandi’es payslip case.. for one….
Awe balekeni ama ghost workers, after all twalibelela. Bana Mpundu uko ku state house bachili balapoka pay.
Kanganja who employs the ghost workers? Please kanganja be proactive and NOT reactive.The elements you have in the system employing ghost workers are costing us a lot.Resign if you cant do you job.Just hot air.
Ghost workers, you must be joking! whats going on in this country? bo-kamushi bwachilamo.
Ghost workers….you know them . Bana Mpundu Nyama Soya ni ba ghost worker. What have you done on that?? Kanganja please spare us with your insipid useless talk without actions.
Lets not pretend these ghost workers are non existent! Most of them are government workers, the teachers nurses and other civil servants. There are alot of zambians who are out there in other countries working full time( not even students) who are still getting full pay every month, and they got this so called study leave. some have gone on unpaid leave but they are being paid full salaries. Some relatives died some time this year and the money still being paid out. Please dont pretend with some of these things. Very sleepy people mu buteko.