A portrait of faceless officials - in pictures

Alham Abdulwaze Nuzeli works at the regional office of the Ministry of Tithing and Alms in the city of Al Mahwit, Yemen. Monthly salary: 12,000 rial (£40). Standard working week: 30 hours. Photograph: Jan Banning/Panos

J Modesco Siaker is township commissioner in Crozierville, Careysburg district, Montserrado County, Liberia. Crozierville had 10,000 people before the civil war; now its population is 4,000. His office and home are in a derelict villa as the town hall was razed to the ground. If he goes to the district office in Careysburg, he often walks for at least 15 hours. Monthly salary: 750 Liberian dollars (£11). Standard working week: 37 hours. Photograph: Jan Banning/Panos

Sushma Prasad is an assistant clerk at the Cabinet Secretary of the State of Bihar (population 83 million) in the Old Secretariat in the state capital, Patna, in India. Photograph: Jan Banning/Panos

Rodolfo Villca Flores is chief supervisor of market and sanitary services of the municipality of Betanzos, Cornelio Saavedra province. Previously he worked as a bricklayer, electrician, plumber and handyman. Monthly salary: 1,150 bolivianos (£112). Standard working week: 40 hours. Photograph: Jan Banning/Panos

Shane Fenton is sheriff of Crockett County, Texas, US, and based in Ozona, the county seat. Monthly salary: $3,166 (£2,000). Standard working week: 40 hours. Photograph: Jan Banning/Panos

Lyudmila Vasilyevna Malkova is a secretary to the mayor of the city of Tomsk, Russia. She and her colleague take turns, working every other day, seven days a week, at least 12 hours a day. Monthly salary: 10,500 rubles (£250). Photograph: Jan Banning/Panos