South Darfur committee to investigate ‘phantom employees

South Darfur state has formed a committee to investigate an estimated 2,800 ‘phantom’ jobs whose salaries have been held since April.

The Minister of Finance in the State, Abdelhafiz Atta El Mannan’ pointed out that some dead people have been receiving salaries, a woman was appointed to the post of muezzin of a mosque (a position reserved for men in Isalmic tradition), this in addition to the 1,174 salaries outside the state.

In a press statement the Minister said that there have been 1,370 files without a national number, 896 files without birth certificates, 360 files without qualifications, 1,997 files mismatching with the national number and birth certificate, 20 files of workers taking salaries without regular attendance and 565 forged files.

Investigation

The Governor of the state, Adam El Faki, El Faki ordered the investigation in March, when it was discovered that the state employs 27,000 workers whose collective monthly salary does not exceed SDG 35 million (*$1.24 million), however, the state pays more than SDG 40 million ($1.42 million) per month which, he said, forced the state government to take strict measures at the outlets of payment of the salaries to monitor that the jobs are real.

* Based on the indicative US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan