The department of public works & infrastructure has begun a process of verifying its workforce aimed at rooting out “ghost employees” from its payroll as part of broader efforts to tighten fiscal discipline and improve governance.
All staff are required to physically present themselves at designated offices as part of a headcount verification process.
The initiative, which officials in the department said would be rolled out nationally, seeks to identify individuals drawing salaries without performing any work — a long-standing problem in the public sector.
“The purpose of this verification is to address the issue of ghost employees within the department. Please be advised that failure to comply may result in being classified as a ghost employee, which could lead to the suspension of salary payments until compliance is achieved,” a notice to employees on Monday reads.
The verification process will be held on May 19 and 20.
Mounting concern
The public works department manages some of the largest government assets and infrastructure programmes, making payroll integrity a critical component of its reform agenda.
It follows mounting concern over the prevalence of ghost employees, nonexistent or former staff members who continue to receive salaries across various spheres of the government.
“The minister [Dean Macpherson] requested the director-general and the acting deputy director-general for corporate services to embark on the verification process at one of the bimonthly executive meetings, which was subsequently actioned this week,” the department’s spokesperson, James de Villiers, said.
“The verification process will be completed within a matter of weeks to establish a similar process undertaken at Prasa, whether there are ghost employees among the department’s 5,010 staff members who receive a salary but do not work for the department.
“There is no exact monetary value that the department is targeting to save through the process. The objective is rather to introduce accountability and strengthen good governance. No government department should be employing ghost employees who draw a salary without performing any work. More importantly, any person found to be defrauding the department must face the full consequence of the law.”
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