Government has promised to get a grip on civil servants accruing large amounts of unused holiday time after Auditor General Larry Dennis warned current slips risked giving fraudsters free reign.

A new vacation and leave tracking system which will keep tabs on holiday time has been promised.

Mr. Dennis said: "Failure to take annual vacations is generally deemed to be an internal control weakness.

"For example, employees perpetrating ongoing frauds would be loath to take vacations lest their illicit activities be discovered by the person performing their duties in their absence."

Accrued leave time also translated to payroll costs not budgeted for warned Mr. Dennis which can then translate into overspend.

He said it had long be a concern of his and he reminded Government that its conditions of Employment and Code of Conduct discourages employees from failing to take annual vacations.

It states accumulated leave in excess of 20 days will be forfeited at the end of the year and will not be paid.

Mr. Dennis said 880 employees had busted the 20-day limit with 95 exceeding 500 hours and a few exceeding 1,000 hours which amounted to six month's leave time.

However many of the 880 employees were Police officers, firefighters and teachers who were not subject to the control, conceded Mr. Dennis.

In a response published in Mr. Dennis' annual report the Accountant General said a new system tracking leave would be rolled out while many of the imbalances had been reduced while the Head of the Civil Service was working on the remainder on a case-by-case basis.