MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) have once again raised serious concerns about the ongoing problem of ghost workers draining the public purse.
Members demanded swift and co-ordinated action to clean up the public sector payroll.
The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration met on Wednesday, 28 May, for a briefing by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), following Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's budget speech which announced a data-driven approach to detecting payroll fraud in government.
Godogwana said the initiative will use cross-referenced administrative datasets to detect ghost workers and payroll irregularities with the aim to replace costly manual headcounts used in the past.
While MPs welcomed the announcement, committee chairman Jan de Villiers stressed that national Treasury cannot handle the crisis alone.
"This challenge requires a joint, co-ordinated strategy involving the DPSA and all relevant departments," he said.
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Committee members expressed growing frustration over continued existence of ghost, fictitious or resigned employees who still draw salaries from government coffers.
They pointed out that this fraud severely limits funds available for critical services and delays the hiring of qualified professionals in the public sector.
"These ‘ghosts' are bleeding the system dry. We can't afford to keep losing public funds while real work suffers," said De Villiers.
He called for a clear national framework to standardise payroll systems, which they say are outdated, paper-based, and poorly monitored.
He also criticised a lack of biometric verification and said current internal registers make it easy for ghost workers to go undetected for years.
The committee also took issue with a lack of detailed statistics in the department's presentation.
De Villiers said they need to know exactly how many ghost workers have been identified, their location, and how much money has been lost.
"If we don't have data, we can't do real oversight. We need answers and numbers not vague updates."
De Villiers also called for disciplinary and criminal charges to be brought against public officials who allow ghost workers to remain on the payroll or those who benefit from the fraud.
"Remarks and frustrations voiced by members reflect the urgency and seriousness of the issue.
"The DPSA must take them seriously. Oversight credibility depends on results, not talk shops," he said.
