China removes over 160,000 phantom staff on payroll

As part of an ongoing national campaign targeting corruption and bureaucracy, a total of 162,629 phantom staff on the Chinese government payrolls have been removed.

Hebei province saw the largest number of such officials, with 55,793 found to be getting paid even though they never worked, Xinhua quoted People's Daily as saying Monday.

Sichuan province removed 28,466 such ghost staff and another 15,022 were exposed in Henan.

No such official employees have been uncovered in Shanghai and Tibet, said the report, adding that 531 redundant people were found in Beijing and 327 of them have been removed.

According to the report, China also scrapped 114,418 vehicles for use in regular government affairs and keep only those for special services, to cut hefty spending amid mounting public complaints over the misuse of public money.