—As CSA and ECOBANK Liberia Launch Revolutionary 50% Salary Advance Payment Scheme
IPNEWS: Amidst a reported death threats by unknown people last week after unveiling plans to audit the Government of Liberia’s payroll, Mr. Josiah Joekai, CSA Director General, has taken the Civil Service to reform process to another level with new that would make Civil servants across Liberia rejoice.
This week the Civil Service Agency (CSA) and ECOBANK Liberia unveiled a game-changing initiative to uplift employees’ financial well-being and put money in the pockets of Civil Servants with the introduction of the ‘50% Salary Advance scheme’, featuring an unprecedented low-interest rate of just 3%.
Now Civil Servants will simply have to open an ECOBANK Enhanced Salary Account, dial *326#, and access up to half of your monthly salary directly into your account.
“Repayment is effortless, with deductions conveniently spread over 30 days. This innovative move now paves the way for the highly anticipated biweekly payment system.” Josiah Joekai, CSA Director General said at the launch of the 50% Salary Advance scheme project.
Last week, expressed concerns about receiving death threats after unveiling plans to audit the Government of Liberia’s payroll.
Joekai revealed that he has been receiving intimidating calls and messages since the announcement of rigorous measures to scrutinize the payroll system.
Despite these threats, Joekai emphasized his dedication to ensuring that civil servants adhere to proper procedures.
In response to the situation, CSA has extended the deadline for the PAN process completion from 90 to 120 days.
This week, Mr. Joekai announced that a number of gigantic actions in keeping with the 2018- 2021 General Auditing Commission’s report, findings and recommendations respectively.
Speaking at the Ministry of Information Cultural Affairs and Tourism regular press briefing on Wednesday April 10, 2021, Mr. Joekai told reporters that the January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2021 audit report uncovers financial Mismanagement, fraud, and waste.
According to him, the auditor General allegedly presented such report with findings and recommendations included but was not implemented by the Weah’s led administration.
The recommendations he stated were divided into segments with some requiring a multi-sector approach while majority needed a simple and straight forward action which and allegedly, former President George Weah failed to implement.
As a means of implementing the auditor General recommendations, the CSA boss said that the CSA will place a moratorium on 122 employees across 20 line Ministries and agencies salaries as of April for illegally and fraudulently sharing bank accounts which cost the government to lost about 30, 795.09cents USD monthly for said discrepancies.
The CSA at the same time encourage those concerned to form part of a month verification process if not the affected people will be permanently removed from the government’s payroll as of May 2024.
The decision was reached following an audit report conducted by the GAC from 2018- 2021 respectively.
The audit report in two instances for scenario one shows that one employee with the same name, same National Identification Registry number , same date of birth is listed twice under the same entity with the same position but with one bank account and a single bank , this the CSA head described as double dipping , meaning the employee along receiving two salaries.
As for scenario two, he explained according to the GAC’s audit report that two different individuals have the same bank account number, different positions and are working in the same entity , this he said was ghosts names representing ghosts employees who are not working but are receiving salaries .
During the audit report he stressed that mobile money payments were made to 127 individuals whose names on the GSM mobile numbers were different from the names on the payroll.
According to him the government is losing 12, 040.14cents USD and 550, 852.70LD monthly. In order words he said people are being paid for services they did not render.
As part of the CSA latest decision all individuals’ concerns will not receive salaries as of April and should participate in a one-month verification process if not as of May 2024, their names will be removed from the government’s payroll.
Speaking more, he pointed out that the audit report also Uncovered that 9287 employees representing 13.7% of employee’s records across 91 spending entities were not available for the physical verification process during the audit something he stated shows that payments were made to ghost’s employees leading to fraud, waste and misappropriation.
Mr. Joekai told reporters that said action caused the government to lose 3, 764, 204 usd monthly and as a result of such, a comprehensive verification for a period of one month will be done and after which, anyone who fails to comply, their names will be removed from the government’s payroll.
The CSA Boss commended development partners to include, US government, the European Union, the Swedish government and the World Bank Groups for supporting such vital comprehensive payroll compliance audit process.
It can be recalled six years ago that the public sector modernization project was implemented by the Civil Service Agency and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning including other spending entities of government.
The overall goal was a major reform to ensure prudent public financial management.
Among other things, an integral part of the PSMP was the National payroll management and central system to ensure accountability and transparency in the usage of public funds to pay government employees.
