Latest news with #JanDeVilliers
Zawya
09-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
South Africa: Public Service Committee Welcomes Treasury Reviews, Urges Swift Action to Professionalise and Clean Up Government
The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration today welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Finance, Mr Enoch Godongwana, to institute three critical spending reviews aimed at improving the efficiency, integrity and developmental impact of government expenditure. The reviews, announced during the minister's budget vote debate, will focus on standardising the remuneration of executives and board members of public entities, auditing and eliminating ghost workers and investigating the persistent underspending and delivery failures associated with infrastructure conditional grants at the provincial and municipal levels. The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Jan de Villiers, said these reviews are not only welcome but long overdue. They echo the committee's consistent calls for a professionalised public service, one that is results-based, provides value for public money, and adopts a zero-tolerance approach to corruption, waste and political patronage. 'We support the development of a standardised remuneration framework for public entity executives and board members. Salaries must be fair, transparent and directly linked to the entity's mandate, complexity and performance. There can be no justification for exorbitant pay packages where service delivery is in crisis or entities are failing,' said Mr de Villiers. On the issue of ghost workers, the Chairperson reaffirmed the committee's view that this is not a minor administrative flaw but a form of organised, systemic corruption that siphons off public funds and undermines trust in the state. 'These are not invisible names on paper – these are real funds stolen from the public. The committee calls for these audits to lead to consequences. We want to see prosecutions, dismissals and systemic reform. The committee will continue to monitor this process closely, and a joint oversight meeting with Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025,' he said. The committee also welcomed broader government efforts to professionalise the state, including the digitisation of human resource and payroll systems, the introduction of lifestyle audits and the rollout of skills audits within departments. This followed a briefing by the DPSA and the National School of Government this morning on government's progress in digitising the public service and aligning training and upskilling with departmental needs. 'The creation of a professional, merit-based and non-partisan public service is both constitutionally mandated and essential to improving service delivery for all South Africans. Skills audits are particularly critical as they allow us to assess whether departments are staffed appropriately and whether officials have the qualifications and competencies needed to fulfil their mandates,' said Mr de Villiers. Responding to this morning's briefing, the Chairperson said digitisation and upskilling will help empower officials and drive improved service delivery, particularly in under-resourced areas. 'We must know not just who is employed in the public service, but whether they are fit for purpose. Skills audits, alongside digital transformation and standardised pay, create an opportunity to reconfigure departments to meet the needs of the public better. Where upskilling is required, it must be supported. Where restructuring is needed, it must be done responsibly,' he said. The committee remains committed to actively overseeing these reviews, focusing on results rather than rhetoric. We are planning a joint meeting with the Department of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury in the third quarter of 2025 to obtain further updates, including a detailed progress update on the ghost worker audit, implementation of lifestyle audits and alignment between performance and pay in the public sector, as well as consequence management for those involved in fraud and maladministration. 'We will not allow these reviews to become another policy gesture. They must be executed with urgency, rigour and public accountability,' the Chairperson said. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
Zawya
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Call for Urgent Ghost-Worker Audit in the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence Following Several Arrests
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, Mr Jan de Villiers, on Thursday submitted a formal request to the Minister of Police calling for an independent and immediate audit into ghost employees within the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Intelligence Division. This request follows the recent arrest of seven senior officials for serious corruption-related offences. They appeared before the Pretoria Regional Court on charges of fraud and corruption relating to the appointment of an unqualified civilian in a senior post. The arrests, which took place between June and July 2025, involved high-ranking officials responsible for financial oversight, personnel management and internal controls. The list includes: Lt-Gen Dumisani Khumalo (Divisional Commissioner) Maj-Gen Philani Lushaba (Chief Financial Officer) Maj-Gen Josias Lekalakala (Gauteng Crime Intelligence Head) Maj-Gen Nosipho Madondo (Head of Analysis Centre) Maj-Gen Zwelithini Gabela (Technology Services) Brig Dineo Mokwele (Technical Systems) Brig Phindile Ncube (Head of Vetting) Mr de Villiers said these arrests raise grave concerns about systemic corruption within Crime Intelligence, particularly in relation to payroll fraud and the possible existence of 'ghost workers' – non-existent individuals who draw salaries and benefits from the SAPS payroll. In his letter, the Chairperson also refers to the Secret Services Account, a classified budget line intended for covert operations and informant payments, which has historically been flagged as highly vulnerable to abuse. With many of the arrested officials directly responsible for managing this fund, there is serious concern that public resources may have been misappropriated to fund fabricated operatives or fake intelligence activity. 'It is reasonable to expect similar malpractice in payroll management... the possibility of irregular appointments, inflated headcounts and unvetted recruits of 'ghost' employees is high,' said the Chairperson. The formal request also calls for the National Treasury and the Public Service Commission to coordinate an audit of the Crime Intelligence division within 90 days. This audit must focus on verifying headcounts against the number of personnel physically deployed. All Secret Service Account payments, including informant lists and payment records, must also be audited. This request is aligned with the Minister of Finance and the Department of Public Service and Administration's ongoing efforts to identify and remove ghost employees across the public service. The Chairperson also reminded the Minister of Police, Mr Senzo Mchunu, and the rest of SAPS leadership that ghost-worker fraud in government is not isolated. 'It takes sophisticated collusion to create and maintain these ghost-worker employees, who operate like organised criminal syndicates embedded in our government systems,' he said. 'We trust that under Minister Mchunu's leadership, SAPS will use this opportunity to lead by example – rooting out embedded corruption and reclaiming public funds for real intelligence and public safety services.' This urgent audit is not just a matter of financial accountability but also one of restoring public trust in Crime Intelligence and ensuring that South Africa's intelligence-led policing is backed by a credible, ethical and fully functional institution. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
Mail & Guardian
09-06-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
At least three officials must collude to create one ghost worker, says public service chairperson
Graphic: John McCann/M&G Creating one ghost employee on the public payroll requires the collusion of at least three officials, the chairperson of parliament's portfolio committee on public service and administration said on Monday. Jan de Villiers also said that the era of treating ghost workers as a clerical irregularity was over. 'This is not merely a payroll anomaly. It is a deliberate and orchestrated form of The briefing follows a renewed government focus on eliminating waste and corruption in the public sector wage bill, triggered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's Godongwana announced a sweeping expenditure review of more than R300 billion in government spending since 2013, using a data-driven strategy to root out inefficiencies, including ghost employees. De Villiers said the portfolio committee, acting on this directive, convened on 28 May to interrogate the pervasive and corrosive problem of ghost workers. Its conclusion was that the issue was systemic, criminal and far more widespread than previously acknowledged. 'The department of public service and administration confirmed before parliament that ghost workers are present across all three spheres of government — national, provincial and municipal. They are also embedded in state-owned entities and agencies,' De Villiers said. Among the examples cited were 230 unverifiable employees whose salaries were frozen by the Gauteng department of health in May, and R6.4 million in salaries paid to ghost workers in the Mpumalanga department of education, which was uncovered by the During a September 2024 hearing, the standing committee on public accounts was briefed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on the discovery of 1 277 ghost employees in the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa's (Prasa) system. According to the SIU, These were not isolated incidents, De Villiers warned. 'The numbers are staggering. They are not anomalies. They are symptoms of a system that needs structural intervention.' The creation of a ghost employee required collusion, De Villiers said. 'At least three officials need to work together to insert a ghost worker into the payroll system. This means we are dealing not with random lapses in judgment, but embedded criminal syndicates.' Although efforts were under way to identify and remove ghost employees through integrated audits between the department and the treasury, De Villiers said more was required. 'A data audit alone is not enough. Every person drawing a public salary must be verified in person and through biometric identification. The public has the right to know the names on the payroll correspond to individuals who really exist and who serve the public,' he said. 'Currently, the three tier authentication system used to validate employee status is open to manipulation. Internal controls have failed. Oversight has been diluted. The opportunity for fraud persists because the tools needed to prevent it have not been enforced, and worse, have been exploited by those meant to protect them.' Departments must take the lead in developing a formalised framework to ensure protection and prevention, and regular audits searching for ghost employees should be carried out, he said. The framework will mandate formal, periodic payroll audits and reconciliation, in person verification and biometric registration, centralised authorisation of appointments and terminations and digital certification of employee attendance and performance. The committee would also call on the auditor general to expand its scope, said De Villiers, requiring that all department and entity audits include a verification of whether internal ghost employees audits have been conducted and whether they were done credibly. 'We will push for disciplinary and criminal action to follow every detection of ghost workers. Names must be handed over to the SIU, the Hawks and the South African Police Service. Fraudsters must not be shielded by departmental silence or internal collusion,' he said. Consequences of inaction were 'grave', he added. 'Every ghost worker represents a post that could have been filled by a qualified graduate, a dedicated nurse, a teacher at a rural school, or a social worker supporting the vulnerable. Every fraudulent salary paid is a step backwards in the fight for a professional, ethical and responsive, responsive state. 'In light of this, the portfolio committee cannot and will not stand idle. Among our priorities in the seventh parliament is to push for the cleanup of the PERSAL system, which remains the foundation of the human resources and vital records in the public sector.' Incomplete performance reviews, poor attendance tracking, and manual leave registers must become early warning indicators, and should trigger automatic investigations. Asked by journalists about the departments most affected by ghost workers, De Villiers said the issue was impossible to localise. 'Every single department, agency, level of government, and state-owned enterprise probably has ghost workers,' he said. But, he added, positions that involved out-of-office work were more easily exploited. He said the lack of uniformity in how public servants were employed — each department using its own HR processes without central oversight — was part of the problem. 'We need a national approach, led jointly by DPSA [department of public service and administration] and treasury, and involving the auditor general, Cogta [department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs] and law enforcement.' The departments would reconvene in the third quarter of 2025 to review progress, scope, preliminary findings, and enforcement mechanisms, De Villiers said. 'This is not going to be another talk shop.'
