Gov’t kicks off biometric registration to get rid of ghost workers

JUBA — The South Sudan government on Tuesday kicked off a biometric registration exercise in Juba in a bid to get rid of ghost workers on the payroll.

The initiative aims to enhance efficiency in public resource management by ensuring accurate workforce data, eliminating ghost workers, improving payroll management, and facilitating efficient and transparent public service delivery.

In her keynote remarks during the ceremony in Juba, Josephine Joseph Lagu, vice president and chair for the Service Cluster, said the exercise will ensure that all public servants on the county payroll are accounted for.

“Together, we can build public service that is proportional, transparent, and accountable in the public service of South Sudan,” said Joseph.

Joseph said the initiative marked a significant milestone in the government’s efforts to build an efficient, transparent, and accountable public service for the country.

“All the relevant institutions that have been working tirelessly to ensure that in the end we have an efficient, effective, and transparent public service,” she said.

“The journey to rebuild South Sudan requires that we have a fair, efficient, and transparent public service. Payroll reform is central to that effort because it affects every civil servant and every institution.”

For his part, Dak Duop Bichiok, Minister of Public Service, said the exercise aimed to update and cleanse the personnel records for accurate implementation of human resource management information systems.

“To enhance the payroll management and efficiency. The benefits of this initiative are significant. It will strengthen the payroll integrity by ensuring that the salaries are paid only to genuine employees,” Duop said.

Duop added that “it will help establish a credible database of all public servants, forming a solid foundation for better planning and management of human resources.”

“It will also enable the government to make more efficient use of limited public funds. I am aware that reforms of the spending plan raise concerns among employees.”

Charles Undeland, Country Manager for the World Bank Group in South Sudan, said each civil servant will get a unique biometric identifier.

“Essentially, each public servant will get a unique biometric identifier, and this will allow the government to help eliminate, like I referred to before, duplicate records and the potential for fraud and ensure that, again, there’s a grip on who the cadre of public servants are,” said Charles.

Charles added that “it shouldn’t be going to public servants; it is indeed going to them and not to anything further or beyond that.

He said this will allow better financial planning for the government, reducing waste and strengthening the foundation for management of the human resources in the government.