GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE, PART I

CAMEROON authorities have discovered 7_000 fictitious names on the civil service payroll during an audit. The civil service and administrative reform ministry said monthly salaries were being paid out to individuals who were carrying out no official functions, with some having left their posts years earlier. Some cases concerned the names of people who had died. the ministry did not say whether the beneficiaries of the false payroll accounts would be brought to justice. – AFP