By Daanyaal Matthews
Parliament’s Public Service and Administration Portfolio Committee has described the presence of ‘ghost workers’ in the public sector as a form of organised crime.
Committee Chairperson Jan de Villiers emphasised that the issue has infiltrated all levels of government, with ghost workers siphoning off millions of rands each month from the public payroll.
De Villiers has called for immediate intervention through in-person human verification audits, citing the Gauteng Health Department’s recent move to freeze 230 salaries of individuals who could not be verified.
Speaking on VOC Newsbeat, Professor David Mello, Area Leader for the Study of Government Affairs at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, said the problem is not new and supports De Villiers’ proposed strategy, noting its past effectiveness.
“Measures that have been taken in the past were to verify the existence of all individuals on the payroll and then subsequently to stop the salaries of those who could not be verified,” stated Mello.
De Villiers explained that setting up a ghost worker requires the collusion of at least three people. Mello added that greater emphasis is needed on what happens after ghost workers are identified, stressing the need for stricter accountability.
“What has not been very clear is the consequence management, meaning the arrest and firing of people who are responsible for the employment of the so-called ghost workers, because they (ghost workers) do not just appear—somebody put them on the system,” added Mello.
Listen to the full interview here:
