South Darfur Wali ‘exorcises’ 3.5k+ phantom state employees

“Millions of Pounds” have been illegally disbursed to more than 3,500 ‘phantom employees’ of the South Darfur state government, the Governor of the state, Adam El Faki, has acknowledged, following a damning report by an appointed investigation committee.

El Faki said that investigations by the employees’ salary calculation committee revealed that the number of real employees in the state is 23,705 while the registered number is 27,250.

The governor pointed out that the committee revealed the fictitious jobs included retirees and and even some who have since died. “However, their salaries have continued and millions of Pounds have been illegally wasted.”

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.

Retrieve misappropriated funds

The Ministry of Finance in the state established investigation committees headed by prosecutors to conduct investigations with employees who had been payed salaries from the state without right and published financial statements for more than 2,000 employees to appear before the investigation committees.

El Faki stressed the importance of preserving the public money and retrieving the misappropriated funds to the public treasury.

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