Gambiaj.com – (Banjul, The Gambia) – The government of The Gambia has frozen the salaries of over 2,100 public servants who were found to be absent without justification during a two-phase nationwide staff audit carried out in 2024, a move officials say could save millions of dalasis in wrongful salary and pension payments.

Already in October 2024, the Personnel Management Office (PMO) announced that it had concluded a comprehensive audit of the government payroll, uncovering significant issues with “ghost workers” across three major ministries.

The audit, targeting absentee workers who continued to receive salaries despite no longer actively working, led to the suspension of 3,024 civil servants’ salaries for September 2024. As of October 9, 2024, only 882 of these workers have provided evidence of active employment, leaving over 2,100 unverified.

The latest audit, led by the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative Reform, Policy Coordination, and Delivery through the Personnel Management Office (PMO), identified a total of 2,103 ghost workers—1,424 in the first phase and 679 in the second—who could not be physically verified across multiple government sectors.

The first phase, which targeted the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education, Health, and Agriculture, Livestock & Food Security, resulted in the immediate stoppage of salaries for 1,424 individuals. Financial institutions have been contacted to recover the salaries already paid to these employees, and the list of names has been submitted to the Public Service Commission for summary dismissal in line with Public Service Commission Regulation 57.

The second phase, carried out in December 2024, extended the audit to the rest of the civil service, including the armed and security forces.

So far, 679 additional public servants have been flagged as unaccounted for, with their salaries frozen beginning April 2025 pending any credible clarifications before final decisions on recovery and dismissal.

Both audits also included a review of the pensioners’ database, aiming to eliminate the names of deceased beneficiaries and further cleanse the government payroll.

In a press release issued Tuesday, Permanent Secretary L. F. Jawara emphasized that the ministry is working on implementing robust ICT-based systems to prevent the reappearance of absentee workers and deceased pensioners on the government payroll. “These exercises are saving the government millions of dalasis on account of wrongful salary and pension payments,” the statement noted.

The audits mark one of the most extensive efforts in recent years to tackle inefficiencies and fraud within the public service, reinforcing the government’s push for administrative reform and better fiscal accountability.