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BusinessLive reports that SA’s public service may be losing more than R3.9bn annually to ghost employees, based on a 1% compromise rate across the state’s 1.3-million payroll.
The figure, presented to parliament on Wednesday, reflects the scale of systemic fraud now under investigation by the National Treasury, the Department of Public Service & Administration (DPSA) and the Auditor-General SA (AG). Briefings to the portfolio committee on public service & administration confirmed that fraudulent entries on government payrolls were present across all three spheres of government. These ghosts include fictitious people, no-show employees and family members added to payroll systems to divert salaries. Treasury’s data tests flagged multiple anomalies, including duplicate personnel and salary (Persal) profiles, salaries paid to minors and individuals drawing basic allowances from more than one department.
National Treasury has launched a cross-system audit using data sets from SARS, home affairs, Emis (education management information system), and Hetmis (higher education management information system). The initiative applies anomaly detection to reduce the verification burden and target high-risk cases. A two-month window will be provided for flagged individuals to verify their employment status.
The DPSA confirmed that a binding circular was issued on 8 September requiring all departments to conduct full physical verification of every person on payroll, including interns, board members and traditional leaders. Departments must submit consolidated reports by 28 February 2026. Departments that fail to comply will be referred to the committee for consequence management. Pension contributions made to ghost employees will be clawed back from the Government Employees Pension Fund.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tara Roos at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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