The Ministry of Finance says it is gradually purging "ghost" civil servants who receive undue salaries.

In a statement, it said that the almost 19,000 employees identified as being unduly paid do not represent a burden for the state.

"With regard to the 18,899 employees, it is clear that they were gradually suspended from the payroll as they failed to comply with the obligation to take the proof of life, according to the month of each employee's birthday, and consequently do not represent any financial burden to the state or undue payments due to the lack of the Proof of Life," it reads.

The document explains that the strategy for eliminating "ghost employees" is to carry out the annual Biometric Life Test in the month of the employee's birthday and to register the employees' effectiveness in the respective human resources units.

The note states that a multisectoral team began joint inspections in the second quarter of this year to ascertain the real reasons and grounds for not taking the life test and the consequent inactivation of state officials and agents in the system, as well as to determine who was responsible for the failure to update the data.