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Isles health ministry unearths 251 ghost workers
2006-02-16 09:15:53
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
After the Zanzibar government increased salaries of medical practitioners, 251 ghost workers have been discovered in the health sector, the Zanzibar Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Sultan Mohamed Mugheiry, revealed yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference, the minister said a four-member committee has been set up to investigate the scandal.
’Those who will be found to have had a hand in the scandal will be dealt with, according to the law,’ Mugheiry said.
He added that the government would have lost 21.6m/- every month.
He said that the ministry discovered the existence of ghost workers between late January and early this month after discovering the existence of two payrolls.
He said that investigations were going on in Pemba and Zanzibar to determine if there were more ghost workers, and the syndicate behind the scam.
According to the Health Ministry Principal Secretary, Omar Makame, the problem of ghost workers was also discovered in 2002, but the exact number of the workers was not known.
Talking about improving workers’ salaries, Mugheiry said the government had allocated about 71m/- in total to cover the increments for medical practitioners’ salaries effective January 2006.
He said that, currently, the Ministry of Health has 3,736 workers, ’probably including more ghost workers.’
Zanzibar’s workface is 26,000.
The Ministry of Health has undertaken major reforms, including the introduction of cost sharing on health services.
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