By Precious D. Freeman
The City Mayor of Monrovia, John-Charuk Siafa, has taken decisive action to address mounting human resource challenges within the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC).
In a recent announcement, Mayor Siafa revealed the establishment of an internal committee composed of senior MCC officials tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of the city’s human resource situation.
This initiative aims to tackle issues such as salary disparities, skills mismatches, and payroll fraud allegations that have recently come to light.
The findings of the committee are set to be handed over to the Director General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA) for expert validation and to recommend further corrective actions.
This partnership underscores the city’s commitment to ensuring transparency and efficiency in public sector workforce management.
At a press briefing, Mayor Siafa candidly described the situation at MCC as “complex and multifaceted,” noting the challenges cut across many areas, with “skills gaps, square pegs in round holes,” impeding effective service delivery.
He painted a stark picture of the current human resources environment that requires urgent restructuring.
A significant financial burden compounds the problem. Mayor Siafa disclosed that over 60 percent of MCC’s annual budget—estimated between $5.5 million and $6 million—is allocated solely to salaries and wages.
This disproportionate wage bill strains the city’s finances, especially given MCC’s limited revenue generation capabilities.
“This heavy wage burden makes it increasingly difficult to manage payroll sustainably without external government support,” Siafa explained, emphasizing the critical role of the Civil Service Agency in assisting MCC’s efforts to stabilize payroll management and human resource practices.
Adding to the urgency is a wave of payroll fraud recently uncovered within the corporation.
Mayor Siafa confirmed that investigations are underway, involving the police and the Internal Audit Service (IAS), to root out fraudulent activities and recover misappropriated funds.
“We have requested the assistance of the Civil Service Agency to intervene and help us address these issues,” the mayor said, signaling a collaborative approach to combating corruption and inefficiency in MCC’s payroll system.
One of the thorny issues Siafa highlighted was the disparity in salaries among long-serving employees, coupled with the misalignment of skills to job roles.
“Sometimes, you have transfer letters that cannot be signed because there’s no appropriate position, or employees whose skill sets don’t match their roles,” he noted.
The mayor emphasized that correcting these mismatches is more advantageous to the workforce than to him personally.
Mayor Siafa also called on MCC employees to fully cooperate with the CSA team, stressing the importance of creating a more organized, resilient, and professional workforce.
This cooperation, he said, is vital for fostering growth, stability, and improved public service delivery.
Director General of the Civil Service Agency, Josiah F. Joekai, responded by acknowledging the challenges within MCC and commended the city’s administration for their openness and willingness to collaborate.
Joekai reiterated CSA’s commitment to building a resilient and efficient public workforce in line with the government’s inclusive development agenda.
Highlighting the gravity of the payroll concerns, Joekai shared an alarming example where 163 employees were reportedly hired by MCC in a single day.
“This unprecedented number raised significant red flags about recruitment procedures and workforce alignment,” he explained, underscoring the need for thorough scrutiny.
To address these issues, Joekai announced that CSA is deploying a team of 11 experts specializing in credential verification, classification analysis, and payroll auditing to conduct an in-depth review of MCC’s human resources.
The team’s mandate is to verify employee qualifications, ensure proper job classifications, and remove fictitious names from the payroll.
Joekai further noted that similar audits have recently been conducted at other government entities, such as the Legislature, Ministry of Agriculture, resulting in personnel reclassifications and the removal of ghost workers.
These efforts have already begun to restore integrity and efficiency within government payroll systems.
In addition to audits, the CSA Director General emphasized the agency’s push to implement an automated time and attendance system across all government institutions.
This system will help curb fraudulent salary claims by ensuring that employees physically attend work and preventing proxy sign-ins, thus enhancing accountability.
“We are working to have all government entities integrated into a single attendance system,” Joekai affirmed. “This initiative will save significant government funds and improve productivity across public service institutions.”
The partnership between MCC and the Civil Service Agency represents a critical step toward reforming human resource management in Monrovia’s city administration.
Both agencies remain firmly committed to eradicating inefficiencies and strengthening public service delivery for the benefit of the city’s residents.
As the review process unfolds, residents and city employees alike are hopeful that these reforms will foster a more transparent, fair, and effective municipal workforce, capable of meeting Monrovia’s growing demands.
