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News24 reports that the government has embarked on a drive to physically verify over a million national and provincial public service employees by the end of February.
A circular sent to the heads of all national and provincial departments by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) gives them until 28 February to submit a comprehensive report on how many ghost employees they found. Ghost employees appear on the payroll of the government but do not actually work, or do not exist. The DPSA said officials will need to conduct a “physical verification exercise” of everyone earning a salary in their departments, from long-time employees to interns, special advisors, traditional leaders, and board members. They expect officials to physically go to the desks or duty stations of employees and see if someone is there. Officials will then also check things like ID numbers, attendance records, payroll verification, and the like. Foreign workers will need to have their permits verified.
Heads of department must then draw up and submit a consolidated verification report indicating how many employees were found to be at their desks working against how many are on the payroll. Once a department has done the arithmetic, it will have to tally the number of potential ghost employees identified and list the actions it has taken, such as freezing salaries or deleting posts. And the DPSA wants to see evidence, such as a list of personnel numbers with salaries frozen, or confirmation that payroll records have been updated. The verification exercise may be checked by an independent body. Municipal staff and workers at state-owned entities are not included in the exercise
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Cronje at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)
Get other news reports at the SA LabourNews home page