THE report submitted last April by the Government-appointed education Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the public education system revealed the existence of ghost teachers on the Ministry of Education’s payroll. This malpractice Guyanese learnt about is proving not to be unique to this ministry, but may rather be prevalent across the public sector.
On Monday, the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had before it the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Public Health answering questions about an alleged 101 phantom workers within the ministry. According to the Auditor General’s Report, which formed the basis for the appearance, files have not been found for these employees for more than two years. Citizens must now ponder how many more hundreds are there, getting paid by the taxpayers, and are unaccounted for.
Phantom workers are an unusual occurrence in the public sector. Proper accounting, i.e. recording and financing, would capture these workers, have them regularised or weeded out of the system. The Education CoI made mention of not only phantom teachers on the payroll, but also phantom schools. That the PPP/C Government held the reputation of having former ministers and political operatives on the State’s payroll who never actually worked, coupled with the preference for hiring contract workers, the atmosphere was fertile to sneak in phantom workers.
Permanent secretaries and departmental heads are appearing before the PAC, having to answer to the politicians who have been the architects of the mess. This is not only an embarrassing situation to the State, but also a grave offence to the taxpayers who are paying people for not being employed. Former PPP/C minister within the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill’s pertinent questions to the PS at the PAC’s hearing are necessary to getting to the bottom of the phantom problem. At the same time, it is reasonable to ponder why when this Member of Parliament (MP) held the ministerial profile he and his government turned a blind eye to the malpractice.
The AG’s Report on the anomaly is not new. It was under Mr Edghill’s leadership that the malpractice was occurring and he would have been aware of it, intimately or otherwise. The acceptance and use of phantom workers under the PPP/C government should find reverse treatment by the APNU+AFC government. Giving money to the boys, girls and party from the State’s coffers is naked theft and a form of corruption which should be rigorously pursued and stamped out. Given our political culture, no PS or departmental head, without directives from or acquiescence of the political leadership, would have the courage to bankroll phantom workers. Budgets are developed through presentations from the regions and the central ministries. The permanent secretaries and regional heads during the budget preparation exercise would have had to justify their respective presentations before the Ministry of Finance. Final decisions on allocation of human resources/workers and finances would have been made by the Minister of Finance and his team. Mr Edghill would have been among this team.
Recently, Mr Allan Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), while appearing before the PAC, apparently saw it necessary to remind Mr Edghill that he (Johnson) is a big man. The statement was in reference to the MP’s treatment of him, who undoubtedly would have been aware that during the period under review, the present CEO had not been in charge. Reports of alleged malpractices at the GPHC were known during the PPP/C government, but nothing was done to hold anyone accountable.
The public servants appearing before the PAC are expected to be accounting for the period the PPP/C was in government. Where in Opposition it now seeks to feign ignorance of a malpractice it inflicted on society and finds its voice to correctly condemn, the APNU+AFC government has to be vigilant and not allow it to continue or be repeated. To do otherwise will not only go against proper public accounting practices, further the abuse of taxpayers’ money, but can become political fodder.