Economy

Magufuli fires nearly 10,000 civil servants

magufuli

Tanzanian President John Magufuli. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has sacked 9,932 public workers after a report found that they were using fake certificates.

Speaking after receiving the report on public servants certificates verification on Friday, he directed that salaries for the 9,000 plus employees for this month be withheld.

He also directed the Prime Minister, Kassim Majaliwa, to declare the posts vacant.

“They are thieves like any other thieves… you cannot perform if you don’t have deserving qualifications,” he said.

He further ordered that others whose certificates have been found to have discrepancies be treated legally “so that they could be jailed for seven years as per the law.”

The Tanzanian leader noted that operations to verify public servants' certificates will compliment an earlier exercise by the government to root out phantom employees.

He said the State was losing Tsh19.84 billion monthly (around Sh915 million) to ghost workers.

Tanzania said that a total of 435,000 civil servants had their certificates verified, with 9,932 of them found to be in possession forged certificates.

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