MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 418
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 15 MARCH 2013
Mr J F Smalle (DA) to ask the Minister for the Public Service and
Administration:
(1) (a) When was the investigation into ghost employees in Limpopo
launched, (b) what were the findings of the investigation and (c) how
many ghost employees were found;
(2) were all departments included in the investigation; if not, which
departments were not included;
(3) what (a) was the total amount spent on ghost employees over the past
three years, (b) amount has been recovered by her department and (c)
action has been taken against any official in this regard?
NW567E
REPLY
(1) The Department of Public Service and Administration did not launch
any investigation into ghost employees in Limpopo, but instead it
undertook a PERSAL clean-up exercise as part of the Section 100(1)(b)
in the departments of Education, Provincial Treasury, Health, Public
Works, and Roads and Transport to ensure the reliability and
credibility of personnel information. PERSAL clean-up is an exercise
intended to identify and remove unfunded vacant posts from
organizational establishment of departments so that there is reliable
data about the total number of public servants. As a result the
exercise would not be able to indicate how many ghosts were found.
It can only indicate how many unfunded vacant posts were found and
removed from the departmental establishments. The results of the
PERSAL clean-up done in Limpopo are as follows:
|Department |Unfunded Posts |No of Funded Posts |
| |disestablished |remaining |
|Education |8754 |69371 |
|Health |30868 |38307 |
|Provincial Treasury |222 |488 |
|Public Works |4447 |2759 |
|Roads and Transport |3279 |4447 |
(2) No, the PERSAL clean-up referred to above did not involve all
departments. The following departments were excluded: Social
Development, Agriculture, Sports, Arts and Culture, Office of the
Premier, Cooperative Governance Human Settlement and Traditional
Affairs, Safety Security and Liaison, and Economic Development
Environment and Tourism.
(3) This question is not applicable since there was no ghost employee
exercise undertaken in Limpopo. However, in terms of the PERSAL
clean-up exercise, there are no funds spent when removing unfunded
vacant posts on the departmental establishments. The reason why they
are being removed is that they give a false sense that organizational
establishments of departments are bloated and that the personnel
budget seems to be bloated. PERSAL clean-up does not seek to punish
officials involved in managing structures since these are not the
results of intentions to contravene the law. In most cases, proper
processes have been followed resulting with the posts being created,
but the challenge is that they are not funded. The Department of
Public Service and Administration is tightening the approval of
organizational structures and is compelling departments to secure
funding before new posts are added to organizational structures and
establishments. Assistance is also being given to departments to
clean up their PERSAL systems. In Limpopo further exercises to clean
up personnel information and achieve data integrity include
verification of learners, educators, health professionals and
officialsâ numbers in the Departments of Education and Health by
Statistics South Africa (The Health and Education Census Project)
which would help facilitate easy planning.