The Anti-Corruption Unit announced to reporters on Friday that it will crack down on “ghost names”, employees who haunt government payrolls and keep receiving salaries despite having left their jobs.

Om Yentieng, chairman of the ACU, said any “ghosts” found in the system will face up to two years in jail.

“We will go down to every government office, no matter how big or small,” he said.

Yentieng said he didn’t know how many fake employees were lurking in the payrolls because “we don’t have any basis for that kind of evaluation”.

Government ministries have three months to root out non-staff, he said.

Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International in Cambodia, welcomed the initiative, but said the ACU should take action “immediately”.

“The ACU’s intervention will only be effective if there are effective mechanisms for accountability established in each institution to address this problem,” Preap said.