A World Bank investigation into the civil service in Zimbabwe found that up to 75,000 posts are occupied by people unqualified. Thousands more don't even turn up for work.
Trade unions estimate that $US15 million is being lost each month paying such workers.
Auditors found that one ministry appointed nearly 7000 people on one day before a run-off election in 2008.
A BBC correspondent says the audit's findings have been with the cabinet for several months but it is understood they have not yet been discussed.
Done by Ernst & Young India in 2010, the audit covered the period from 2007 to 2009 - a period, the BBC reports, when Zimbabwe's economy was in meltdown because of inflation, and a teacher's monthly salary hardly paid for a single bus fare.
This might partly explain why on the day of the audit about 13,000 public workers were absent - out of a total of 180,000.
The report also found 75,000 state workers lacked the qualifications needed to do the job. Correspondents say little has changed.
