KINSHASA- DR Congo's spending auditor has pointed to massive public payroll fraud, with tens of thousands of apparently fictitious employees costing the country an estimated $794 million a year.
In a statement dated Thursday, the Inspection Generale des Finances (IGF), the official spending watchdog, said 145,604 matriculation numbers for public servants were either "incorrect, fantastical" or "fabricated".
Over 53,000 public servants had more than one matriculation number, the IGF added, and over 93,000 shared a matriculation number with other government employees.
Nearly 44,000 people were receiving pay without their names appearing on official payrolls.
The IGF said 961 public servants who were in charge of handling payments themselves appear on the payrolls of several different government ministries.
They were part of a "mafia network" with some payment agents appearing on more than 15 separate payrolls, the watchdog said, adding that it had referred their names to the judiciary.
The IGF estimated the payroll fraud was depriving the treasury of 149 billion Congolese francs a month.
The sum is equivalent to about $66 million dollars a month -- or $794 million a year -- according to the latest informal exchange rates between the Congolese franc and US dollar.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's 2023 budget is about $16 billion.
Despite having vast mineral resources, the DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world, plagued by corruption, mismanagement and conflict.
Some two-thirds of the 100 million population live on under $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.