PARLY'S 'GHOST' BUSTERS

Header: SPOKE SES GELD 

Subhead: MPs call out government 'ghost workers' corruption

“GHOST workers” have been called out in Parliament, as millions of rands in tax money are being stolen through non-existent mense in government jobs.

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration Jan de Villiers said the problem of “ghost workers” is not merely a payroll anomaly, but a “deliberate and orchestrated form of systemic corruption”.

In a briefing to the Governance Cluster Oversight committees on Monday, the DA MP said an investigation into the problem as part of a joint audit is now under way between the Department of Public Service and Administration and the National Treasury.

But he said the true scope of ghost workers is not known yet, as President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Government of National Unity face daily crises.

De Villiers explained: “Let us be clear, the phenomenon of ghost workers is not an issue of administrative error.

“The Department of Public Service and Administration confirmed before Parliament that ghost workers are present across all three spheres of government, affecting national and provincial departments, municipalities, agencies, and state-owned entities alike.”

De Villiers then went on to give examples of the corruption already found, with 230 fake jobs on the books of a provincial department of health. 

He added: “For example, last year, the Auditor-General (AG) uncovered R6.4 million in salaries being paid to ghost workers at the Mpumalanga Department of Education. In May this year, the Gauteng health department froze the salaries of 230 employees who could not be verified.”

De Villiers said they are also calling for this process to begin with a physical, in-person human verification audit of all government employees underpinned by mandatory biometric identification.

He stated: “Every person drawing a public salary must appear in person and be verified. The public has the right to know that the names on the payroll correspond to individuals who exist, who work, and who serve.”

He said that the next step must be to find the skelms and bring them to justice.

De Villiers said: “We mustn’t fool ourselves, the people behind the creation of ghost workers are syndicates – they are criminal organisations within the state.

“They work together. These aren’t rogue individuals just taking the chance, it is a symptom of corruption within the state that is highly organised.”