Cambodia found more than 2,000 ghost civil servants

Cambodian government has found more than 2,000 irregular civil servants (simply called as ghost civil servants) who got government payrolls, a government report showed Tuesday.

The report said since the third census on civil servants began early last month, more than 2,000 irregular civil servants have been found at national level, which accounts for the loss of about 2 million U.S. dollars per year from the government budget.

Average salary for civil servants is about 80 U.S. dollar per month.

It remains unclear how many more of irregular civil servants will be found until this third census to be ended by the end of this month while there remain six more government institutions that need to be reviewed with.

After a new Royal Cambodian Government was formed in 1993, Cambodia held its first census on civil servants in 1995, and the second of its kind in 2001.

Source: Xinhua