An audit by Nigeria’s government has discovered more than 20,000 nonexistent workers on federal payroll. Periodic checks are to be continued to avert further abuse.
The audit used biometric data and a bank verification number (BVN)to discover where the salaries were being paid. The names of some civil servants receiving a salary did not correspond to the names on the bank accounts. Some individuals were receiving salaries from multiple sources.
“The federal government has removed 23,846 nonexistent workers from its payroll,” Festus Akanbi, a special adviser to Finance Ministe, Kemi Adeosun, announced on Sunday. “Consequently the salary bill for February 2016 has reduced by 2.293 billion naira (10.5 million euros/$11.5 million) when compared to December 2015 when the BVN audit process commenced,” Akanbi added.
The ministry announced that it would undertake “periodic checks and utilize computer-assisted audit techniques.” New and tougher monitoring of entrants to the civil service is to be introduced to prevent further abuse.
Akanbi said the ministry was working with the financial crimes agency and the National Pension Commission to identify irregularities. The aim was to recover salaries and pension contributions related to the ‘ghost’ workers.
Ongoing exercise
“The ongoing exercise, which is part of the cost-saving and anti-corruption agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, is key to funding the deficit in the 2016 budget,” said Akanbi.
Buhari’s government came to power last year, pledging in its campaign to tackle corruption and cut the costs of government.
Akanbi said Nigeria’s state coffers were depleted as a result of the collapse in global oil prices. Reducing the costs of state personnel was “key to funding the deficit in the 2016 budget, as savings made will ultimately reduce the amount to be borrowed,” he said.
Corruption and mismanagement have held back the development of Africa’s largest economy for many years.
(AP).- El gobernante Partido Comunista de China dijo haber sancionado el año pasado a cerca de 300,000 personas en cargos públicos por corrupción.
La agencia oficial de supervisión del partido de China afirmó hoy que 200,000 de esas personas recibieron castigos leves y 82,000 penas graves, como degradaciones dentro del aparato burocrático.
El organismo, conocido como Comité Central para Inspección de Disciplina, rara vez comenta sus métodos o las pruebas que considera, y el breve comunicado en su sitio web no daba más detalles.
El presidente, Xi Jinping, ha presionado para lanzar una gran campaña contra la corrupción entre cargos públicos de todos los niveles, incluyendo a los funcionarios en el partido, gobierno, ejército y empresas estatales.
Cientos de miles de funcionarios han sido entrevistados en la campaña, pero sólo unos pocos fueron identificados. Una base de datos independiente enumera a 1,567 personas como investigadas, expulsadas del partido o sentenciadas.
Al presidente Rafael Correa le preocupa la desnutrición en el Ecuador. En su Enlace sabatino desde Vilcabamba (Loja) reconoció que uno de los “grandes fracasos” del Gobierno en el sector social fue no haber logrado disminuir los niveles de desnutrición en el país: “Esta es una grande vergüenza para un gobierno de izquierda como el nuestro”, dijo.
Según sus datos, de los 752 243 niños atendidos y registrados en el Sistema de Salud, el 20,8% tiene desnutrición crónica. El Primer Mandatario dijo que ya tienen identificado al menos 156 000 niños y que la idea es hacer un seguimiento personalizado.
Como parte de las propuesta parar erradicar esta problemática se propondrán reformas en la distribución de recursos para los Gobiernos Autónomos Descentralizados, en especial las parroquias, para que la lucha contra la desnutrición sea un parámetro previo a la asignación de los recursos; también dar incentivos económicos a las unidades de salud.
Otra de las propuestas del Primer Mandatario es de corte laboral. La idea es que las mujeres que dan a luz, a más de la licencia remunerada de tres meses, tengan la opción de solicitar una licencia -sin sueldo- de hasta nueve meses. Esta sería aplicable solo si la madre se ocupa exclusivamente del bebé. “No hay mejor educadora que la madre y que le pueda seguir dando el seno a su hijo”, dijo el Mandatario.
Sobre el rol de los padres en el cuidado de los niños, el Presidente sostuvo que “sin lugar a duda”, no es solo labor de la mamá sino también del papá. No obstante, reconoció que para la lactancia la madre es irremplazable. Se refirió a la igualdad de género que proponen las feministas y recordó que existen diferencias biológicas: “Yo no puedo dar de lactar a un bebe”.
La legisladora Betty Carrillo (Alianza País), que forma parte de la Mesa de los Trabajadores, aseguró que la iniciativa presidencial es positiva. Dentro de los dos debates de la Ley para la Optimización de la Jornada Laboral y Seguro de Desempleo, algún legislador puede proponer este punto y así la Comisión lo analizará.
Para la oficialista, durante este Gobierno se han incorporado beneficios para las mujeres como el despido ineficaz para las mujeres embarazadas o promover para las amas de casa la Seguridad Social: “El eje de género está de manera trasversal en las leyes y decisiones”.
High among the problems bedeviling Nigeria’s public service is the scourge of ghost workers. The problem is now a national crisis and a huge drain on the national economy. In a nation where personnel costs represent forty percent of government’s total recurrent expenditure, bilking of government via ghost workers constitutes a chunky portion of recurrent expenses. Recently, after a verification exercise among military retirees, the number of pensioners was reduced by 19,203, translating to a downward revision of monthly pension expenses by N575 million. The reduction was attributed to natural attrition, namely deaths since 2012.
Amidst the budget padding brouhaha, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun revealed that 23,000 ghost workers were detected in the federal bureaucracy — the so-called Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). That number is certainly preliminary, since it’s far lower than the 62,893 revealed by erstwhile Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala a few years back. The ghost worker scourge is huge and related statistics alarming. Recent ghost workers discoveries within the states include, Plateau 5,000; Kano 8,000; Anambra 850; Kebbi 9,300; Osun 71; and Niger 7000. By extrapolation, the remaining thirty states could easily have between 100,000 to 151,000 ghost workers. Prevailing figures indicate that there is one ghost worker to three legitimate workers in Nigeria’s public service. Reportedly, some 71,135 ghost pensioners exist on the federal government payroll.
Ghost workers essentially represent dysfunctionality in governance. The ghost workers problem, which ought to be an aberration in any proper self-accounting and self-auditing bureaucratic system, is now a national scourge that warrants urgent remedial measures. A ghost worker is a payroll personality, not actually employed by the paying public service institution. Ghost workers exist as a person or only in name. Ghost workers disenfranchise other Nigerians by collecting wages and entitlements not due to them. Some are double dippers, who do one job but collect wages at two pay points.
Ghost workers exist because every bureaucracy creates its own weaknesses. This is not peculiar to Nigeria. Evidence points to high occurrence of ghost workers in Third World countries. In 2014, Kenya discovered 12,000 ghost workers on its payroll; mainly person who continued to receive salaries after leaving government service. In 2015, Cameroon identified 10,000 ghost workers within its 220,000 civil service cadre that cost the government $12million monthly. In Yemen using a biometric system, the government detected 5,875 ghost workers in a 485,818 work force. In Nigeria ghost workers run in the hundreds of thousands, because of willful and complicit phantom paymasters. What was once an aberration resulting from minor personnel or accounting errors is now a scam that exploits lax oversight and weak enforcement of extant public service rules and regulations.
The ghost worker scourge is fiscal. The motivation is greed. Those who orchestrate ghost workers merely tap into the seemingly depthless resources of the government. Most State budgets like the federal budget are frontloaded with recurrent expenditure. A huge subset of that fiscal burden is dedicated to personnel emolument; and a high percentage of the personnel emolument currently go to ghost workers. The problem of ghost workers is so big, insidious and entrenched in the Nigerian bureaucracy that the nation is losing billions in the three tiers of government. Human resources managers at the federal, state and local government levels are mainly culpable; so too is the approving and accounting officers. These officials are not clueless of the origins of ghost workers and how to plug the loopholes. Rather, they willfully embrace such loopholes or in the least, pretend such loopholes do not exist, because they and their cohorts are the beneficiaries. Ironically, the ghost workers problem is far more rampant in the public service bureaucracy and less so, in the organized private sector. This fact alone, affirms ghost worker proliferation as a public policy failure, which solution lies in the realm of hard-headed problem solving.
The attendant cost of ghost workers to the Nigerian taxpayer is mindboggling. The federal government alone reportedly saved some N208 billion by putting in place the Integrated Personnel Information System (IPSIS), a personnel payroll management and auditing system that flushes out ghost workers. Finance Minister Adeosun recently alluded to the FGN saving N100bn in personnel costs from the yet to be approved FY 2016 Budget. Cumulative national costs remain a matter of conjecture, but certainly run into billions.
Tackling problem source requires Periodic review of hiring and firing policies and ensuring that they comply with establishment and appropriated recruitment figures. Periodic census of public service personnel and the maintenance of records of all official and natural personnel attrition, including sacks, retirements and deaths; Maintaining an organigram of every MDA that reflects approved staff strength; Identifying the accounting officers, mostly in the Offices of the Heads of Service responsible for monitoring establishment quotas, and handling public service recruitment and separations and approving salary vouchers sent to banks; Installing fail-safe redundancies in electronic information technology platforms that check overrides and inputs into the system used for preparing payrolls; Ensuring that personnel and supernumeraries brought in by political appointees also depart with their principals; Working with labour unions concerned that innocent civil servants, with incomplete documentation, but not necessarily ghost workers will be disenfranchised; Strong internal controls that dispense with all forms of cash payment for emoluments; Adequate monitoring of banks and other financial institutions including micro-finance banks used for payment of salaries.
Transparency and Accountability remain essential to solving ghost worker challenges and caging the problem. Without question, fraudulent acts by most ghost workers originate with payroll personnel. Since ghost salaries results from manipulation of payroll technology, blocking such pilfering will require blocking prospective technological loopholes. Thus caging the ghost workers require a uniform and concerted personnel recruitment and civil service census policy that must be in tandem with the payroll data management. Additional cluster of measures required include, automated mapping of payroll; disbursement of salary only to employees’ accounts; use biometric attendance devices; opening accounts for new employees tied to their BVNs from the onset; Segregating duties related to payroll preparation, disbursement and distribution; and finally, ensuring that sequenced pay slips are prepared for the employees, during pay periods. These are not original ideas and are already being used piecemeal in some establishments. Yet to be maximally effective, a holistic approach is required.
The problem of ghost workers is essentially dual-tracked; identifying correctly those who collect wages for work done and those who collect wages for work not done, or exist in the workforce only in name. The solution is surprisingly simple but requires drastic intrusive measures. This is because those executives that create ghost workers are also the ones that are routinely charged with conduct of oversight and auditing. Hence while ghost worker may be reduced through internal mechanisms, the scourge will not disappear entirely unless there is a concerted top-to-bottom effort and the political will to tackle the scourge. A singular answer is spontaneous forensic audits and reviews managed by top executives and carried out entirely by outsiders. It’s that simple.
The author is a public policy adviser, consultant and immediate past Secretary to the Anambra State Government.
En los últimos días en la Ciudad de México se ha suscitado un debate entre ciudadanos e internautas por la utilización de Periscope por parte de Arne Sydney Aus den Ruthen Haag –servidor público de la administración pública local– para evidenciar infracciones cometidas por las personas a la Ley de Cultura Cívica y al Reglamento de Tránsito.
Periscope es una aplicación para sistemas iOS y Android, que permite compartir a través de la red social Twitter, videos o scopes en tiempo real transmitidos por un usuario o scoper. Los demás usuarios pueden ver la transmisión desde equipos de cómputo y dispositivos móviles e interactuar por medio de comentarios.
Arne Aus den Ruthen se ostenta como city manager (una clase de administrador municipal) de la delegación Miguel Hidalgo en la que se encuentran algunas zonas residenciales de lujo y que es encabezada por Xóchitl Gálvez, miembro del Partido Acción Nacional al que él perteneció por 17 años. El city manager se ha dado a la tarea de salir a las calles para transmitir por Periscope las violaciones a la ley in fraganti. En noviembre de 2015 redes sociales y medios masivos de comunicación tradicionales dieron cuenta del caso conocido como #LadySotelo o #LadyBasuras, en el que una mujer fue sorprendida tirando basura en la vía pública, para después vejar y pretender intimidar al city manager, ostentándose ella misma como servidora pública – después se supo que prestaba sus servicios para la delegación Tlalpan. El incidente concluyó con la remisión de la infractora ante el Juzgado Cívico, como ordena la ley.
En febrero de 2016, el city manager ocupó sus transmisiones para evidenciar las múltiples violaciones cometidas por equipos de guaruras (término con el que se conoce en México a los agentes de seguridad pública o privada que protegen a personas de la alta jerarquía gubernamental o de gran poder adquisitivo) que con sus vehículos invaden zonas peatonales y cometen otras violaciones a las reglas de tránsito. Dichos vehículos, cabe mencionar, normalmente cuentan con equipo policial y militar inclusive, lo cual es también ilegal si se trata de cuerpos de seguridad privada. En una de sus transmisiones, el city manager evidenció las infracciones cometidas por los guaruras del empresario Raúl Libien, quien es identificado comoamigo personal del presidente Enrique Peña y varios miembros de su equipo.
Libien en una ocasión amedrentó al city manager presumiendo sus influencias y al cabo de unos días, en hechos distintos, uno de sus guaruras golpeó al Arne Aus den Ruthen y le robó el smartphone que continuaba transmitiendo a través de Periscope. A Libien se le identifica desde entonces como #LordMeLaPelas en las redes sociales (“Me la pelas” es una expresión vulgar que significa me da lo mismo).
También en febrero de 2016, el city manager dio a conocer las violaciones cometidas por los guaruras de quien resultó ser Francisco Guzmán Ortiz, jefe de la oficina de la Presidencia de la República.
Justo después de que Arne Aus den Ruthen exhibió los casos de #LordMeLaPelas y de Guzmán Ortiz (cercano colaborador del presidente Peña), se avivó el debate sobre el uso que servidores públicos deben o no dar a Periscope y aplicaciones similares. Los derechos fundamentales parecieran ser de los principales tópicos en el debate: ¿Se viola el derecho a la presunción de inocencia cuando alguien es exhibido cometiendo una falta? ¿Hay vulneración a la privacidad, al derecho a la propia imagen? ¿Se está aplicando la pena de infamia pública de manera sumaria por parte de quien exhibe a un ciudadano infractor?
El abogado y conductor de televisión Leopoldo Gómez, uno de quienes discrepan con la forma de trabajar del city manager comentó para Milenio:
“Me preocupa más que una autoridad imponga castigos por encima de la ley. Como ha apuntado la CDHDF [el organismo local encargado de la protección a los derechos humanos], al exhibir públicamente a los infractores, la autoridad vulnera su honra y su imagen. Se crean sanciones adicionales y una “violencia innecesaria”. En el caso del city manager, con buenas intenciones. Pero ¿queremos que los funcionarios puedan imponer sanciones a partir de sus deseos u ocurrencias? En esa lógica se basa el poder autoritario.”
“Debemos darles seguridad a todas las personas sobre lo que puede o no hacer la autoridad. El uso en vivo, la transmisión en vivo y posteriormente subir a redes la información debe tener esa claridad en ley de que va a convertirse en una forma de inhibición de conducta. El hecho de que sea en vivo [permite que] pueden pasar ‘n’ situaciones. ¿Qué pasa cuando hay un error, cuando transitan personas por ahí, si hay niñas, niños y no se puede difuminar la imagen en ese momento?”
El poco diáfano discurso de Perla Gómez contrasta con el hecho de que, según reportes, su oficina está dando trámite a tres quejas en contra Arne Aus den Ruthen:
“Si bien, señala la CDHDF, de ninguna manera está en contra de que las autoridades cumplan sus deberes, le preocupa que la utilización de herramientas tecnológicas como Pericope, ‘exhiba a personas que hubieran realizado conductas que probablemente constituían una falta administrativa sin que las autoridades observen las obligaciones que tienen en materia de protección de datos personales, al ser la imagen de una persona un dato personal que la hace identificable por sus rasgos físicos’.”
Sobre la postura de la CDHDF, el city manager expuso:
El internacionalista Gabriel Guerra, al defender la postura a favor del uso de Periscope para dar a conocer a los infractores, escribió:
“La prepotencia, el desacato y la impunidad no hacen caso de la amable indicación de la autoridad. Se requiere de la voz ciudadana, de la denuncia pública, del escarnio para que cambien sus conductas. En cualquier sociedad civilizada, el escándalo se centraría en quien viola la ley descaradamente y no en quien lo exhibe. Aquí confundimos el debate.”
En Twitter, a en respuesta a una pregunta directa que hice sobre el tema, el abogado Rodolfo Herrera Moro dijo estar a favor del uso de Periscope en casos como el mencionado:
@tadeo_rc a favor! La raíz de ntro problema es que corrupción e ilegalidad son socialmente aceptados. Periscope fomenta cambio de mentalidad
Sobre el hecho de que el órgano local especializado en derechos humanos asevere que las grabaciones implican vulneración a la protección de datos personales, el tuitero Shiva señaló que en la gestión del jefe de gobierno de la ciudad, Miguel Ángel Mancera, también se hacen grabaciones en las calles:
Así las cosas, el abuso de influencias, los delirios de grandeza y la prepotencia que se encuentran arraigados en gran cantidad de mexicanos busca derrotar los contrapesos que encuentra a su paso. Las autoridades, indudablemente, deberán blandir las herramientas que tengan a su alcance encontrando la forma de hacer valer la ley sin vulnerar derechos fundamentales ni incurrir en actos que puedan ser interpretados como ilegales. El tema no es de relevancia menor y llama, por lo menos, a una eficaz ponderación de derechos.
Lockwood overcame many social and personal obstacles related to gender restrictions.
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood becomes the first female attorney admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1876, because of the Court’s refusal to admit women to practice before it “until such a change is required by statute,” Lockwood will undertake three years of Congressional lobbying, resulting in passage of H.R. 1077 “to relieve certain legal disabilities of women.”. A lawyer, author, and women’s rights activist, Lockwood will run for election as President of the United States in 1884 and 1888.
As we begin a month-long commemoration of National Women’s History Month, I’m glad that this year’s theme honors women in public service. It’s a perfect time for us to reflect on the accomplishments of women in government who succeeded, often against great odds. It’s also the right time to recommit ourselves to encouraging the next generation of women leaders
The National Women’s History Project has named 15 women who it says “have shaped America’s history and its future through their public service and government leadership.” Included in this accomplished group are four women who dedicated their lives to Federal service:
Sonia Pressman Fuentes, co-founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the first woman attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Judy Hart, who in her 27-year career with the National Parks Service became the founding superintendent of the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y. and of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park in Richmond, Calif.,
Oveta Culp Hobby, the first commanding officer of Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II and the first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, now the Department of Health and Human Services.
Nancy Grace Roman, an astronomer, was the first woman executive at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her contributions to the establishment of the Hubble Space Telescope.
From young women in high school and college studying such critical skills as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) to women in mid-career, it’s important that government reach out, as part of its overall recruitment efforts, and encourage them to join in serving the American people. OPM is committed to helping agencies find and develop the talent to follow in the footsteps of the distinguished leaders we honor this month.
We are working with agencies to identify and remove any barriers that managers may face in recruiting the diverse talent they need, including women. Through OPM initiatives like Executive Women in Motion, we are bringing aspiring women leaders together with mentors who can help them and encourage them to become members of the Senior Executive Service.
OPM issues guidance to agencies to help promote the policies that help women – and men – balance the needs of their families and the responsibilities of their jobs. This includes such workplace flexibilities as telework and alternative work schedules.
OPM also provides data on the continued narrowing of the pay gap in the Federal workforce. In 1992, Federal women in white-collar jobs made 70-cents on the dollar compared to men. The most recent data we have show that by 2012 that number was 87 cents. Women in Federal leadership positions are doing even better. In 2012, these women were paid 99.2 cents on the dollar compared to their male counterparts.
Working with the Department of Justice, OPM is also helping agencies develop strategies and training to increase awareness of and help colleagues support victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Abuse, and Stalking.
As the President said in his proclamation recognizing March as Women’s History Month, “We have come far, but there is still far to go in shattering the glass ceiling that holds women back. This month, as we reflect on the marks made by women throughout history, let us uphold the responsibility that falls on all of us — regardless of gender — and fight for equal opportunity for our daughters as well as our sons.”
OPM, like other agencies across government, will set aside time this month to celebrate the achievements of women in Federal service. I want to thank all Federal employees for the work they do every day to fulfill their missions to serve the American people.
