The newly appointed County Education Officer (CEO) of Nimba, Mr. Francis Leagay, has uncovered over 1,200 ghost names on the county’s teachers’ payroll, raising serious concerns about accountability in the appropriation and use of public education funds.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer on May 6, 2025, at his office in Sanniquellie, Leagay disclosed that the discovery was made during a fact-finding initiative he launched shortly after taking office in February. According to him, the payroll discrepancies point to systemic weaknesses that have long siphoned critical resources away from frontline teaching and learning.
“Since we assumed office, we observed that several individuals listed on the payroll were absent from classrooms. After touring a few schools, we were able to verify about 1,200 ghost names,” he said.
Leagay has since reported the findings to the Ministry of Education and is working under its mandate to replace fraudulent entries with qualified volunteer teachers currently serving without pay. He emphasized that this intervention is vital to restoring integrity to the education system in Nimba County, where many competent teachers have been marginalized while public funds continue to pay nonexistent staff.
“Under our leadership, we will ensure that the issue of ghost names is curtailed or stopped altogether because it is undermining the sector,” he declared. “We have dedicated teachers who are unpaid, while others are receiving salaries without working. This will not be tolerated any longer.”
The scale of the payroll fraud comes as a shock, especially given that under the previous administration of President George M. Weah, biannual verifications were supposedly conducted by teams from the Ministries of Finance and Education. The persistence of ghost names despite those exercises raises questions about the credibility and rigor of past audits.
Beyond payroll irregularities, Leagay also outlined broader plans aimed at promoting transparency, competency, and merit-based leadership in the school system. Starting the next academic year, he announced, all public-school principals in Nimba County will be required to sit for an aptitude test to verify their pedagogical skills.
“We want only trained and qualified teachers to head schools, not individuals from other professions whose focus might be on personal financial gain rather than educational outcomes,” he explained. “When businesspeople are appointed as principals, we often see an uptick in the unauthorized sale of learning materials, shifting the burden unfairly onto parents and students.”
He further condemned the longstanding practice of schools charging exorbitant unauthorized fees under the guise of constructing District Education Offices, guest houses, or covering PTA-related costs. According to him, many of these projects remain perpetually incomplete despite annual collections from students.
“Such practices inflate tuition and registration fees unjustifiably and create barriers for many families,” Leagay said. He pointed out that the Boakai Administration has established clear guidelines mandating that all fees collected must align with the Ministry of Education’s standardized policy and must directly benefit school development projects approved at the county level.
In a county where over 700 public schools struggle annually with funding shortfalls, Leagay’s initiatives underscore the urgent need for transparency, accountability, and integrity at every level of the education system.
His leadership signals a renewed commitment to ensuring that budgetary appropriations truly reach classrooms, benefiting the students and communities they are intended to serve.
