Liberia discovers 'ghost' workers

Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf says corruption is the public enemy number one

Liberia's government says it has found more than 7,000 'ghost' workers on its payroll - employees who do not actually exist, or do not work for it.

The discovery was made when the government embarked on a civil service overhaul to improve efficiency.

The Civil Service Agency head, William Allen, told the BBC that the ghost workers "got there through the usual avenue, which is corruption".

He said they had cost Liberian tax payers about $2.6m (£1.3m) a year.

All the fake names have now been removed from the payroll and a biometric identity system is being introduced, he said.

"The biometric (system) is about 99.9% foolproof so once we install this technology we hope once and for all that we will be able to save the Liberian tax payers a huge sum of money," Mr Allen said.

Liberia, under the helm of Africa's first woman president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, is in the process of re-building following its 14-year civil war.