—- As CSA Requests GGAC for In-depth Audits of the GOL’s Civil Service Payrolls
IPNEWS: At long last, the Civil Service Agency (CSA) has taken decisive action by requesting the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to examine payroll compliance across all 103 spending entities forensically.
This audit, covering the period January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2023, according to the CSA will provide vital insights into the extent of financial mismanagement and irregularities within the system.
The government states that it fully supports this critical national initiative and is committed to providing the necessary resources to facilitate the CSA and GAC’s effective execution of this audit
Honorable Josiah F. Joekai, Director-General of the Civil Service Agency, speaking at the Weekly Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs & Tourism (MICAT) Press briefing on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, stated that the CSA has discovered excessive bloated payroll, encompassing 67,746 personnel across 103 governmental spending entities amounting to an average monthly wage expenditure of US$23.5 million.
Honorable Joekai said the CSA unearthed conspicuous evidence of widespread discrepancies, inefficiencies, and irregularities plague in the various entities through a rigorous employee headcount exercise conducted by the CSA at selected spending entities yielded troubling results especially the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.
He said this revealed that about 69 individuals that could not be properly accounted for, something he termed as ghost employees.
Joekai also mentioned that at the Liberia National Police, 98 employees remained untraceable, raising suspicions of fictitious personnel on the payroll.
Meanwhile, the Civil Service Agency Josiah Joekai with immediate effect blocked the salaries and subsequently removed from the payroll, individuals employed as of December 18, 2023.
He said this violates former President George Weah’s directive to suspend all new employment and service contracts across government institutions.
