By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Audit report has indicated that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) loses at least $800 million annually to scam related to payment to ghost workers.
The country’s Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) says the payroll audit reveals that payments have been made to numerous fictitious employees.
According to the IGF, the numerous payment irregularities involve tens of thousands of non-existing workers.
Each month, “the monthly loss of earnings suffered by the treasury is 148,999,749,440.95 Congolese francs (or 66.2 million dollars),” said the IGF in a statement on Thursday, concerning the audit conducted by its services.
The DRC’s public finance watchdog says that more than 145,000 paid agents have “incorrect, fictitious and fabricated registration numbers for payroll purposes”.
The audit report further disclosed that more than 40,000 agents are paid without their names appearing on the declaratory lists from the services that employ them, while over 90,000 agents “share the same registration number with other agents who are also paid.”
The IGF says it will transmit to the judicial authorities the list of 961 state agents involved in this “mafia network”.
Already, “some cases of obvious irregularities are subject to deactivation” on the payroll of state services, the same source added.
The DRC has a budget estimate 16 billion dollars for the 2023 fiscal year.
A vast majority of citizens in the country live in poverty despite its huge natural resources.
According to the World Bank, nearly two-thirds of the country’s about 100 million population live on less than $2.15 a day, which is the international poverty line.
The country ranks 169th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2021 ranking.
