‘Ghost’ teachers back on payroll
Over 600 public primary and secondary school teachers out of the 1000 that were erroneously listed as ghost workers and deleted from the payroll last month have been put back on payroll.
The teachers were deleted following last year’s headcount and payroll audits by the National Audit Office (NAO) which was aimed at eliminating ghost workers said to be inflating government’s wage bill.
Confirming the development today, Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) spokesperson Manfred Ndovi said the remaining 400 are expected to be put back on the payroll by end June upon verification of their professional documents by the Auditor General.
Among the affected 1000 teachers were over 500 from Nsanje, 312 from Ncheu, 60 from Mzuzu, 32 from Balaka, 25 from Blantyre and 10 from Lilongwe.
Said Ndovi: “The 600 plus teachers are those that completed submission of documents the auditors were looking for by the time salaries were being processed. Some are still making submissions but since salaries have already been prepared they will be considered later.”
Ndovi was however quick to point out that all the affected teachers will not get their salary arrears unless they make claims.
He further acknowledged that the erroneous removal of the teachers from payroll has affected service delivery as in some schools the affected teachers are constantly giving excuses.
The ministry has therefore appealed for patience as it is working on bringing all teachers back on pay roll.
The recently finalised payroll audit report by the NAO is said to have exposed a number of ghost workers masquerading as civil servants.
Secretary to the Treasury (ST) Ronald Mangani is on record saying government is already deleting the ghost workers from the system.
