The “pay parade” comes after 68 000 of Malawi’s 169 000 public employees did not respond to a government request to open bank accounts and register for electronic paycheck deposits.
“Payment of salaries for the remaining 68 000 civil servants who have not yet opened bank accounts has started through a pay parade,” said Secretary to the Treasury Joseph Mwanamvekha.
The treasury chief said the government, which spends 4.5 billion kwacha ($30m) every month in salaries, wants to “establish the existence of the 68 000 workers and understand why they are failing to open bank accounts.”
He added that the government wanted “ghost workers to disappear from the public service.”
Before the new system, most civil servants in the former British colony were paid cash for their wages, which average $100 a month.
Fraud is rampant in many ministries and departments, especially in the police service and the education ministry.
Senior police officers have in the past been arrested for fraudulent activities including creating ghost workers, and four civil servants from the education ministry last year created 135 ghost workers to steal $33 000 a month from state coffers, police said.
Mwanamvekha did not have an estimate of how much money goes to ghost workers each year, but prosecutors have in the past said one-third of Malawi’s revenue is lost to fraud.