By Alex Yomah
The Minister of Finance, Planning and Development, Samuel Tweah, has threatened that no ministry or agency will receive salary payment until they adhere to the government’s payroll verification instructions.Despite complaints from the Ministry of Internal Affairs that over 600 employees’ names had not been verified on the payroll for several months and therefore are yet to receive salaries, Minister Tweah at the Liberian Senate yesterday said some of those employees who have not received salaries could be ghost names that government wants to locate on payroll.
Appearing at the Liberian Senate alongside the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the acting Director of Civil Service Agency, Tweah said all the 694 unverified names could not be ghosts but they might not have taken pay because some of them may have had problems within the system either through the multiplication of their names or their failure to submit their biometric ID Card details which is compulsory.
According to Tweah the government is firm on cleaning the payroll and as such, neither one person will receive salary nor will there be any bulky cheques issued for disbursement by any minister and or director.
However, on the issue with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, two former superintendents, now senators pleaded with Tweah to be patient with the Ministry describing its payroll structure as a difficult situation to handle.
Though Senators Milton Teahjay and Gbar-bo Brown of Maryland and Sinoe Counties respectively did not rule out the issues of ghost names, they said it extremely difficult for MIA alone to have 694 ghost names on the payroll.
According to the two senators, what happened sometimes for which it is referred to as ghost is that when a paramount chief or anyone in a local position dies, said position will not be declared vacant and central government notified, yet the local authorities in consultations with central government leaders will fill the vacuum yet the deceased person’s name will still reflect on the payroll.