The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) held a hearing with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) on Tuesday, regarding its annual report and investigation into ghost employees.
Prasa also had to account for fruitless and wasteful expenditures after it received a disclaimed audit outcome for four consecutive years.
Prasa and Operation Ziveze
Prasa employees’ irregularity
Scopa said it was “concerned about the lack of consequence management for hiring ghost employees at Prasa”.
This after it came to light back in December 2021 that more than 3 000 ‘ghost workers’ were receiving full salaries, with Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula describing it as a ‘grand scam‘.
ALSO READ: ‘Grand scam’: Prasa was paying 3,000 ghost workers full salaries, says Mbalula
Ghost employees ‘resigned’
The rail agency stopped salary payments in March 2022 and Operation Ziveze was implemented to uncover irregularities at the state-owned entity.
Then in November 2022, Mbalula said Prasa employees asked to come forward on a voluntary basis to be verified.
However, out of 17 268 recorded employees, only 14 268 presented themselves for verification. Mbablula said 1 159 employees resigned.
These cases were flagged and grouped into four categories:
- Possible ghost workers
- Employees with fraudulent qualifications
- Employees facing serious criminal charges
- Identity theft: Employees masquerading as someone else
‘How does a ghost resign’
On Tuesday, Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa wanted to know “how a ghost resigns and who processes these resignations”.
To this, Prasa board chairperson, Leonard Ramatlakane, said it was “suspect that on one scoop, 1 159 employees resigned”.
“We were also not provided with a resignation report or a letter on these 1 159 employees”, he said.
However, Ramatlakane pointed out that the agency is currently saving R20 million a month in salaries since the resignation of those 1 159 employees.
8 months later, still no answers
Meanwhile, Scopa member Alf Lees wanted to know what has been done about the 3 000 ghost employees: Have they been dismissed? Have they been identified?
It should be noted that Scopa asked for monthly reports to be submitted in March 2022. Hlengwa said this requirement had not been adhered to.
“My expectation on Operation Ziveze is that you would be presenting a progress report on verification. Now it’s by chance that you have had resignations”, Hlengwa added.
SIU to ‘follow the money’
According to Ramatlakane, Prasa had referred the matter to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for investigation.
“The SIU has agreed that they will follow the money and look at who has been paid, who received the money out of this ghost workers saga”, Ramatlakane said.
Scopa concluded the hearing on Tuesday by requesting Prasa to submit a detailed written report of all ghost employees, including a timeline.
Going forward, Prasa will also be required to submit monthly progress reports pertaining to expenditure, investigations, annual report and financial statements.
Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa.
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