By M.A. Egge
The Minister of Information, Culture and Awareness Hon. Ahmed-Yasin Sheikh Ali Ayaanle, has on Tuesday launched a rigorous census of employees that is tailored to root out ghost workers.
The exercise is expected to go on for about a fortnight.
The minister, who was flanked by both his deputy Hon. Musa Askar Guleed and the Director General Mr. Abdisalan Mohmoud Duale, emphasized the fact that the main goal of the procedure was to ensure and discern the employees who diligently perform their duties for the nation and those who do not show up for work at all but merely receive wages.
The move would also point to ghost workers, if any.
The minister pointed out that it was burdensome and totally wrong to have some staffers do their duties and chores well while some are nowhere to be seen.
He underpinned the fact that physical census would root out the menace and at the same time determine the individual caliber and worthy of the employees.
Hon. Ahmed-yasin similarly made it clear that close monitoring of the ministry’s employees and their output would go on even after the census; such that ardent characteristics may be instilled amongst the staffers for the good of the ministry and the nation at large.
He sternly warned that the culture of absenteeism or absconding from duties would be not tolerated at all.
He said, “A person who does not work or only comes only on specific day of the appointment will not be accepted since the monitoring of adherence to duties would be continuous”.
He continued by saying that “it is necessary to know the work a person does in the ministry, the hours he works, the department he works in and the time he comes to work”.
He underlined the fact that it is not fair for some employees to work while the rest do not show up for work hence doing gross injustice to fellow staffers.
The minister revealed that the most common complaints he has received from workers is that the employees who do the most work are far much fewer than those who are absent or do not work at all, hence, the need to address the situation.
On his part the Deputy Minister Hon. Musa Askar Guleed, noted that administratively, employees do not rank or position themselves, but each employee of the Ministry would be evaluated based on his or her work and how well they perform in their assigned work.
In conclusion, DG Abdisalan, explained the process of the census process and procedures being undertaken as involving three stages:
First is the personnel department, which checks the employee’s name, information, education, and the time he reports for duty.
The second stage, which the employee goes through, is the accounting department, which will also check the official status of the employee, and the last stage is the photographing one.
The issue of ghost workers and irresponsibility of workers not reporting for duties at all and living off the back of others is believed to have been a menace in the past decade hence needed swift remedy.