Maputo, 26 Apr (AIM) – The mayor of the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, Luís Giquira, has announced the existence of about 500 ghost workers registered on the municipal payroll.
According to Giquira, who was speaking to reporters on Wednesday, on the sidelines of a session of the Municipal Assembly, the existence of these employees was detected thanks to the mapping of the municipality’s human resources.
He explained that the previous payroll was for a monthly sum of about 25 million meticais (390,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate), but after the human resources area was reorganized, the figure dropped to around 18 million meticais.
“When we took over the Municipal Council, we came across a lot of problems with the employees’ work contracts. We mapped them out. Unfortunately, we have the situation of 488 employees who haven’t turned up to date, and we don’t know if they’ll turn up tomorrow. We believe they are ghost workers, who shouldn’t be on our payroll”, said the mayor.
Giquira said that a meeting with all the municipality’s employees is planned for next Saturday, as there are other issues to be clarified.
“We also have 1,011 employees in an irregular situation. Their contracts have expired and others have not been authorized by the Administrative Tribunal. The municipality also has debts with the National Social Security Institute (INSS), due to the failure to channel the social security deductions from workers’ wages to the INSS”, he said.
Regarding the situation of the street vendors who occupy the pavements and streets of the city, Giquira promised that he would soon be meeting with these informal workers.
“It’s not our intention to send the informal vendors out of town. Together we will find ways to give dignity to our city, including solutions to promote fairs and places where they can carry out their activities”, he said.
The Municipal Assembly now has a majority of members from the ruling Frelimo Party, following last year’s bitterly contested municipal elections. The opposition says the Nampula result was fraudulent and that, in reality, the main opposition party, Renamo, won. A Renamo victory would have given the then mayor, Paulo Vahanle, a further term of office.
It is easy for the Frelimo majority in the Assembly to blame abuses such as the employment of ghost workers on the previous, Renamo, administration of the city.
(AIM)
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