Question NW3757 to the Minister of Public Service and Administration
30 November 2015 - NW3757
Lekota, Mr M to ask the Minister of Public Service and Administration
(1)Whether, in view of the enormous publicity given in print and on television regarding the 36 000 ghost workers on the payroll of North West, he has ascertained (a) how such an army of ghost workers remained undetected for years and (b) the resultant cost to the taxpayer; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether ghost workers are also drawing salaries and benefits in (a) other (i) provincial and (ii) national departments and (b) municipalities; if so, what are the relevant details; (3) why the Government has failed to (a) undertake annual audits of its employees and (b) run unannounced checks to verify figures; (4) what action has been taken against managers and recipients who have defrauded the state; (5) what measures the Government has in place to run departments efficiently, ethically and economically?
Reply:
- The Department of Public Service and Administration is aware of the pronouncements made in the media in relation to 36 000 ghost workers in the North West province. This matter is currently under investigation.
- The management and employment of public servants at national and provincial level is 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. Currently Municipal workers do not fall within the ambit of the Public Service’s human resource management framework. Departments’ employee numbers and payroll fall under the purview of the respective Executive Authorities and are audited by the Auditor-General.
- Mechanisms for annual audit and verification on the number of government employees are in place. A process of strengthening these mechanisms to mitigate the challenges of ghost employees, amongst others is currently underway, these process include the cleaning up of the PERSAL System.
- Fraud and non-compliance to the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 and the Treasury Regulations and other legal prescripts are dealt with through the disciplinary processes.
- The Public Finance Management Act, and the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) Outcome 12 amongst others, outlines government’s endeavors to ensure that departments are run efficiently, effectively and economically. Furthermore, government has introduced the National School of Government, which provide training programme to the public servant in order to ensure that these public servants run government departments efficiently, effectively and economically.