May 17, 2016
Tanzania’s new president, who has earned the nickname “the bulldozer,” won another fight against corruption in the East African country after the government announced it eliminated 10,000 jobs in the public sector held by so-called “ghost workers.”
The public payroll’s house cleaning comes after an audit found that more than $2 million a month was lost to people scamming the system and profiting from jobs that didn’t actually exist, according to an announcement on Sunday night from Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa.
“We will identify those behind this payroll fraud and take them to court… the fight against corruption is top priority for the government,” Majaliwa said through an official statement.
A nationwide audit kicked off in March as a way to uncover fraud, corruption, and lost funds in the nation of nearly 50 million people. The government action is just the latest attempt by President John Magufuli to fight back against corruption since he was elected in October by a decisive majority.