The government has saved about D130 million after removing more than 2,000 names from the public payroll following nationwide staff audits.

The disclosure was made by Minister of Public Service, Administrative Reforms, Policy Coordination and Delivery Baboucarr Bouy at a government press conference.

Mr Bouy said the reforms were introduced in response to longstanding weaknesses in the public service, including inadequate capacity, poor staff performance, inefficient service delivery, weak records management and a lack of correlation between pay and work.

According to the minister, staff audits conducted in 2024 and 2025 found thousands of workers who were either not reporting to work or could not be accounted for at their assigned stations.

“At the end of it, we were able to remove over 2,000 names on the payroll of people actually found not to be at work,” he said.

He said the exercise also helped government recover funds that would otherwise have continued to be paid to absentee workers.

“In the last round of staff monies, we saved about 130 million,” Bouy said.

The minister attributed the problem partly to the former manual attendance system, which allowed workers to have colleagues sign attendance books on their behalf, creating opportunities for abuse and undermining accountability.

To address this, the Ministry of Public Service has introduced biometric time-attendance machines in several government institutions.

Under the system, civil servants are expected to clock in and out, allowing authorities to monitor attendance, identify absenteeism and detect early departures.

Mr Bouy said government is also working towards a Human Resource Management Information System to digitise personnel records and strengthen payroll and human-resource management.

He said the reform will involve scanning paper-based records and capturing them in individual electronic files, making information easier and faster to retrieve while reducing the risk of records being lost or damaged.

The minister also highlighted reforms in pension administration, saying the government has streamlined procedures to reduce delays in processing retirement benefits.