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The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) appeared before Parliament this week to brief the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration on steps it is taking to clean up the pervasive problem of ghost workers on the government payroll.
These non-existent employees draw salaries every month, creating extra pressure on the public purse that it doesn’t need. The committee expressed its view that ghost employees also hinder the hiring of new talent and more importantly, undermine public trust.
The DPSA’s appearance came a week after the recent budget speech from finance minister Enoch Godongwana, where he said the government plans to implement a “data-driven approach to detecting payroll irregularities [which] will replace the more costly method of using censuses”.
This initiative will cross-reference administrative datasets to identify ghost workers and other anomalies across government departments, Godongwana said, which would help ensure that public money is put to meaningful use.
The DPSA told the portfolio committee it planned to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Personnel and Salary system (PERSAL), which is used by departments and government entities to capture administrative records for every person appointed. This includes salary and benefit details for which an employee is eligible for. The system is also used to make payments.
“It is the responsibility of every department and government component to ensure that personnel records are maintained and up to date on the PERSAL system,” added the department.
The payroll system is overseen by several users who have different roles and responsibilities, as a safeguard to prevent one person from having the authority to process and complete payments that might be irregular. This means, the DPSA told the committee, that it would only be possible to appoint and pay a person irregularly on the system if all responsible parties within a department collude to capture and authorise irregular transactions, or when users share their system login credentials with others.
Payroll integrity is not negotiable
The committee expressed frustration over the prevalence of ghost workers, despite repeated calls to act. Members also called for officials involved to be named and shamed and face disciplinary action.
Members were particularly concerned about the weaknesses in current public sector payroll and human resource management systems, which are still primarily paper-based, with internal registers lacking physical or biometric verification.
“Conducting physical verifications on individuals on the payroll, to detect ghost workers, is a very resource intensive and costly exercise,” said the DPSA. “The verification needs to be done on a continuous basis, as appointments and resignations are taking place on a regular basis.”
Committee members, however, insisted that the integrity of payroll systems must be protected at all costs. They further demanded a national framework to eliminate ghost employees, much like those of the professionalisation and digitalisation strategies under way in the public sector.
In terms of consequence management, the committee noted that while the DPSA had been at pains to point out the existence of governance processes and controls that are in place for combating irregular appointments and payments, there is “little evidence of standardisation, implementation, or adequate enforcement.”
The committee resolved to convene a follow-up meeting with the department, the National Treasury, and the relevant departments across national and provincial governments.
The DPSA, meanwhile, will continue to guide and support departments and government entities in their efforts to improve ethics and integrity and fight corruption in the public service. This will be done through the Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit.
It will also collaborate with National Treasury in the initiative announced recently by Godongwana, which will use administrative data to cross-reference for ghost workers.
