Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro  has told SW Radio Africa that a civil service audit commissioned to expose ghost workers on the government payroll among other things still awaits cabinet deliberation before it can be made public.

Leaked details of the report suggest there are over 75 000 ghost workers milking US$20 million every month from the cash strapped treasury. Speaking on the Question Time programme, Mukonosweshuro said; “Cabinet is still to deliberate on that report. It would not be proper for me to present to the legislature an issue that was originated in the executive and an issue that the executive has not conclusively discussed. That is the situation. It is not procedural for me to take to parliament a report that has not been considered by cabinet.”

Mukonoweshuro said he was not the one who sets the agenda for cabinet and it was up to Mugabe and Tsvangirai to do this. His ministry received the damning report in November 2010 and he says he forwarded it to cabinet. Three months down the line it has not been discussed and Mukonoweshuro said it would be up to the same cabinet to formulate a policy on how to deal with the findings.
The majority of the ghost workers, mostly untrained and unqualified ZANU PF militias, were hired a few months before the 2008 election. In particular, Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere hired 6,861 militias and deployed them countrywide.

“The maximum number of appointments made on one day was by the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, where 6861 ‘civil servants’ were appointed on May 26 2008,” the report says.

The report shows that there are 75 273 ghost workers out of 188 019 employed in various ministries. In addition, the audit shows that there are 17 088 civil servants with unclear positions in government. Another 1 315 civil servants working without specific duties, while the qualifications of 8 723 could not be verified.

Responding to allegations from ZANU PF that the audit had been politicized Mukonweshuro said; “We have no desire to play political football with issues of such a sensitive matter and we are anxious that the public process should be executed quickly so that we can move on and see how we can have a look at the structure of our civil service and payroll so that our country can benefit from its most critical resource – that is the people who work for it.”
He had some unkind words for ZANU PF apologist Professor Jonathan Moyo, who had suggested that the only credible and acceptable public service audit could be done by or under the auspices of the Public Service Commission. 

“It’s nonsense. It’s absolute nonsense for anybody to say that. In actual fact it is very difficult to work with people who think like that. The public service audit was meant to audit the record of performance of the Public Service Commission, so how can a person in their sober senses say that the Public Service Commission was supposed to audit themselves? It is absolute nonsense for anybody to say that and I do not in fact wish to even comment further on such patent nonsense.”

By SW radio