• Guinea saves $26.9M after verifying public workers via FUGAS system
  
  
• Only 130,000 of 277,000 staff confirmed through biometric checks
  
  
• FUGAS part of broader reforms to modernize administration and cut fraud
  

Guinea has saved more than 233 billion Guinean francs ($26.9 million) through a unified administrative and payroll management system (FUGAS) implemented in July 2024, officials said this week.

Of the 277,000 contract staff and civil servants registered, only about 130,000 were confirmed after biometric checks and verification. The results were presented in Conakry during the system's official launch by Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah.

Managed by the Ministry of Labour, FUGAS is a key tool for streamlining the public service. It verifies employees' identities, secures salary payments, tracks career progression, and eliminates duplicates, irregular ID numbers or non-existent posts. The system cost about 60 billion Guinean francs to implement.

"We are shifting towards a new Guinea," Amadou Oury Bah said. "This system must also integrate a unique personal identification number, whether you are a civil servant or not. This will allow the government to have a comprehensive management capability at the national level within an hour, with more innovation and efficiency."

The establishment of FUGAS is part of the Simandou 2040 strategy and a broader public service reform. It complements a series of measures taken in recent months to modernize Guinea's administration, including the launch of the Telemo public procurement platform to strengthen transparency, the modernization of online services through the national Data Center, and the Guinea Telecoms project to improve connectivity.

For the system to deliver on its promises, it will need regular updates. Monitoring staff movements will be critical to prevent irregularities from reappearing. The use of biometric data also requires strict governance regarding security, storage and privacy protection.

"Employees who were recruited and spent 10, 15 or 20 years without a change of status, with the same hierarchy, the same grade, the same category and sometimes the same position. Today, nearly 20,000 public employees will change grade, change category and change hierarchy," said the Minister of Public Service, Faya François Bourounou.

Samira Njoya