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The Citizen reports that the Mpumalanga Department of Education (DOE) is under fire over the revelation that a staggering R19 million in salaries was overpaid to deceased and terminated employees last year. This was more than triple the R6 million flagged by the Auditor-General (AG) the previous year.
The DOE confirmed that it was investigating 1,270 cases linked to erroneous payments. DOE spokesperson Gerald Sambo said they were finalising the investigations and that recovery processes were already underway. “Most overpayments result from administrative delays, such as late reporting of deaths or resignations. When these are identified, the department immediately initiates recovery from beneficiaries,” he advised. According to Sambo, in the past year the department had implemented staff training to improve compliance with termination procedures and strengthened circuit-level monitoring systems for early detection of potential overpayments.
According to the AG’s 2024-25 report, “the department has a poor control environment, particularly in human resource management. The preventative controls are not implemented, and officials are only reactive to the issues identified. In the current year, human resources managers approved housing allowances without supporting documents. The lack of execution of controls is due to a lack of consequence management for poor performance by officials.” However, the AG did knowledge the DOE’s progress in addressing salary overpayments through improved control measures and timely recoveries.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Masoka Dube at The Citizen
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