According to the Standard Newspaper issue of Wednesday 16th August, 2017, three thousand one hundred forty-six [3146] ghost workers were uncovered from the government payroll. It is further reported that this represented a monthly loss of ten and a half million dalasis to the government and one hundred and twenty-five millions annually. This is a staggering amount of money, Mr President.
This evinces that our system was broken and that despite the fact that people were afraid to do certain things during the reign of the previous government, their greed propelled them to cheat and make money at the expense of the nation. This further shows the truth about the statement of Karl Max that ‘Man is a selfish animal’. This is unimaginable.
Mr President, as I said earlier, we have a problem of discipline in this country. Certainly, all those ghost workers who were receiving salaries wrongly knew that what they were doing was illegal and completely unacceptable. Besides, those people could not have done it continuously without inside help. In each case, there must have been someone on the inside who helped – was helping – him or her to cover his tracks. I think it is clear that crimes have been committed here and that there should be prosecutions if and when the full facts have been established.
This also tells us that if we do not strengthen the legal framework on employment issues, we will continue to battle with corruption and corrupt practices. This causes a huge waste of resources to the government.
Thus, I want to reiterate my call that we need a permanent Anti Corruption Commission which will constantly be on the neck of the people who manage the finances of officials. Corruption is a disease that can cause a lot of harm to the nation and so long as it is not tackled, our development will keep being derailed. This we can’t afford at the moment.
Mr President, let us ensure that whoever works for the government will know that corruption will not be tolerated and that whosoever is found wanting will face the full force of the law. Let us exorcise this cancer before it spreads to every part of our society.
Have a Good Day Mr President. …
