Govt moves to curb resources leakage
Government has put in place measures to curb the abuse and wastage of resources that occurs within its payroll system through payments to non-existent workers or those that absconded.
A memo from the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD) to controlling officers and heads of departments, indicates that the measures, effective immediately, are aimed at strengthening the government payroll and employee data in the Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS).
In the document, the department observes that some controlling officers have been paying salaries to officers who may have absconded, resigned, retired, died or gone for studies without government approval.
The department has since directed controlling officers and heads of department to ensure that insertion of arrears of any type on the payroll should be accompanied by authority to pay from the Secretary to the Treasury and Audit Verification Certificate from the Auditor General, among others.
Reads the directive in part: “All submissions of such changes to this Department, should be accompanied by a covering letter signed by the controlling officer.
“Controlling officers should ensure that officers entrusted with HRMIS rights are properly scrutinised for their integrity and competence and that there is proper segregation of duties.”
It further instructs human resource management personnel to ensure that changes affecting the payroll such as recruitment, abscondment, resignation, interdiction, re-instatement, promotions and deaths are properly documented, approved, and authorised by the controlling officer.
When contacted yesterday, DHRMD spokesperson KennieNtonga asked for more time before commenting on the matter.
But governance commentator Moses Mkandawire, who is National Alliance Against Corruption chairperson, said the biggest challenge in the public service is lack of integrity.
He said government is losing a lot of money through payment salaries to ghost workers or people who do not deserve to be paid.
“When someone dies, the supervisor should be able to report as soon as possible so that the person is removed from the system.”
Recently government also paid 114 ghost workers in the health sector.
The ghost workers received salaries from April 2023 to June 2023.
