Mozambique has spent $250 million paying non-existent public sector workers usually referred to as ‘ghost’ workers.
The payments were made to these ghost workers in the last two years.
The revelation follows an audit of the country’s civil service payroll. The audit was done to assess the effectiveness of public officials in the Southern African country.
The country’s Civil Service Minister Carmelita Namashulua says about 348,000 workers were assessed in the audit.
The Mozambican government had earlier outlined plans to try to control public spending.
The country was ranked as the 153rd most corrupt in the 2017 Transparency International Index.
It was recently ranked 135th out 190 countries in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business released in October.
Mozambique’s GDP growth has been among the world’s highest – thanks to foreign investment and an expanding tourist sector.
It is however still one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world.
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