Payroll ‘Mafia Network’ Costs Congo $73 Million Each Month
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1:05Democratic Republic of Congo’s government is paying more than 145,000 employees who may not exist, according to an audit by the nation’s inspector-general of public finances.
Double payments and salaries for fake government employees or for people with no clear job description cost the country about 149 billion Congolese francs ($73.2 million) monthly, the General Inspectorate of Finances, or IGF, said Thursday in a communique posted on Twitter.
The announcement comes as the central African nation seeks funding to pay for a national budget that grew 46% from last year to $16.1 billion.
The IGF will work with the civil service to clean up the payrolls, it said. It’s also sending to the judiciary the names of 961 payroll agents who are suspected to have been involved in “a mafia network” which draws payments from multiple departments.
“Many of them were on more than 15 payrolls,” the IGF said.
A spokesperson for Congo’s government did not immediately respond to a text message requesting comment on Thursday.
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