MINISTRY: PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO.: 3978
Ms A T Lovemore (DA) to ask the Minister of Public Service and
Administration:
(1) (a) How were the reported 36 000 ghost workers detected in the North
West, (b) what is the extent of the financial loss to the specified
provincial government as a result of this fraud, (c) who benefitted
from the salaries being paid to these workers and (d) what action has
been taken as a result of this discovery, including any appropriate
disciplinary actions;
(2) whether measures to detect the existence of ghost workers in each
national and provincial department (a) have been or (b) will be
implemented in this regard; if not, why not; if so, what are the
relevant details in each case?
NW4846E
REPLY
1) (a) As part of an exercise undertaken by the North West Office of the
Premier to determine the cost drivers of the wage bill in the
Province, misinterpretation of employee information lead to the
reports in the media about the 36Â 000 ghost workers in the Province.
After realisation of this misunderstanding the Director-General of the
North West Office of the Premier, Dr Keneilwe Sebego issued a media
statement, early in November 2015, indicating that there were no ghost
workers in North West, but that non-permanent type of appointments
were erroneously labelled as ghost workers. This was also officially
confirmed in a letter, dated 13 November 2015, addressed to the
Director-General of the DPSA in response to enquiries made to the
North West Office of the Premier.
(b) Taking the information in (a) above into consideration, there was
no fraud or financial loss in the North West Provincial
Administration since the payments made to these non-permanent type
of appointments were made legitimately.
(c) The non-permanent appointees themselves benefited from the
salaries legitimately paid to them.
(d) The DPSA is not aware of any disciplinary action taken as a
result of the misunderstanding. The Office of the Premier in North
West indicated that it will continue to monitor appointments in
the Provincial Administration.
The management and employment of public servants at national and
provincial level are managed through a decentralized Human
Resource Management framework where Heads of Department and
Executive Authorities are responsible for the employment and
management of their own employees. Departmentsâ employee numbers
and payroll fall under the purview of the respective Executive
Authorities and are audited by the Auditor-General.
The Public Finance Management Act, 1999; Treasury Regulations and
other legal prescripts contain provisions to deal with monitoring
of payments to employees in the Public Service. Fraud and non-
compliance to these measures are managed through the disciplinary
processes in the Public Service.
See the reply to (a) above.