The spooky details of the extent of ghost employees at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) was laid bare after the entity saved about R200 million through Project Ziveze, which sought to verify employees on its payroll system.
The Department of Transport said that it was a joint operation with the Department of Home Affairs, the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Umalusi, and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).
The department said that the investigation flagged 2 143 employees, who were then grouped according to the following categories: possible ghost employees who could not be physically verified; employees masquerading as somebody else, raising the possibility of identity theft; fraudulent qualifications submitted; and employees with serious criminal offences.
“The preliminary investigation revealed that 1 480 employees either cannot be physically verified and their files or documentation are non-existent, while others resigned without the necessary supporting documentation at the start of the project. The investigation also revealed a number of instances where ID photos do not match the face of employees. This has triggered further investigations,” said Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula.
During its preliminary investigation, it was not able to verify 1 480 employees while 1 159 resigned during the process.
Mbalula said they were on the course to rid Prasa of all forms of corruption.
“Those officials who aid and abet these dastardly deeds of corruption will face the full might of the law. We have a duty to ensure that public resources are channelled towards delivering services to the citizens in a responsible and cost-effective manner,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula said that in the first phase of the project employees were invited to come forward on a voluntary basis to be verified with copies of their ID documents, qualifications and the Human Capital Management (HCM) Employee Data forms.
“During this phase, out of the 17 268 recorded employees on Prasa’s payroll system, 14 268 employees presented themselves for verification. During the same period, 1 159 employees resigned. Failure by 3 000 employees to come forward for physical verification led to suspicions that there could be a number of ghost employees at Prasa,” Mbalula said.
Prasa then commissioned the services of an independent service provider to establish if these were indeed ghost employees, to identify weaknesses in the Prasa system as well as identifying culpable officials who may have colluded with unscrupulous people to create ghost employees where this was found to be the case.
The department concluded, based on these findings, that the root causes of the problem were incorrect capturing of employee information, resulting in a corrupted employee database, weaknesses in Pasa’s ICT system and weaknesses in its internal control environment.
Mbalula said that the next steps include taking urgent action to address the findings and challenges identified to date.
This could include a forensic investigation that will conduct a deep dive into critical issues flagged in the preliminary investigation, a digital fingerprint and photo ID verification process with the assistance of the Department of Home Affairs, digitisation of files and supporting documents, and a clean-up of the employee database.
Mbalula said that through the project they have been able to save Prasa about R200m since its inception in November 2021.
“Our efforts must translate into Prasa becoming a truly credible and ethical organisation that prides itself on its professional ethos and robust governance systems,” he said.
The Star