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A programme to eliminate “ghost employees” within the Gauteng provincial government is more than halfway complete as verification of employees entered the next phase, Finance MEC Barbara Creecy said on Thursday.
The Gauteng Provincial Treasury had made significant headway in verifying, through a biometric system called the Identity Verification Solution, more than 63 000 provincial government employees since the initiative started last year.
Speaking at the post-State of the Province Address cluster briefing, in Johannesburg, Creecy said employees from Gauteng’s departments of Health, Finance, Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as the Office of the Premier and the Gauteng Provincial Treasury have had their fingerprints and identity numbers verified against the Department of Home Affairs’ national population register.
The first phase of the biometric system project last month moved towards completion as employees in the Education Department, which boasted the second-highest staff complement, started the physical verification process.
The verification of employees aimed to detect and prevent fraudulent activities and protect the image and resources of government, while reducing “ghost employees”, eliminating payment of salaries to employees who had terminated their service and ensuring salaries are paid to officials appointed in line with approved organisational structures.
Over 140 “ghost employees” had already been removed from the payroll from the Department of Health, saving the province more than R1.2-million a month.
The second phase of the programme, which would be introduced this year, would see the verification of employee bank account ownership to ensure that salaries were paid into valid accounts and to prevent fraud, Creecy added.
“Our aim in this regard is to enhance the accuracy of the payroll system, match bank account details with authentic officials and eliminate payment of salaries to employees who have terminated their services,” she said.
Once the identity details of the employees had been verified, bank account ownership would be confirmed with the banking sector to ensure that there was a direct match with data in the payroll system.
This process was expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year.