National Treasury probe reveals ghost workers in public service

THE National Treasury yesterday revealed that the interim result of its project of identifying ghost employees in the public service has lifted potential civil servants who may be illegally withdrawing salaries.

- MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA

This emerged when the Public Service and Administration Portfolio Committee was briefed by the National Treasury, DPSA, and Auditor-General South Africa.

The National Treasury embarked on the project announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in his 2025 Budget speech after the DA put forward “a full-scale audit of ghost employees across government” as one of its conditions to vote for the Budget.

Acting Chief Data Analytics Officer Ayanda Hlatshwayo told the MPs that they don't have any final results to present, but they have made significant progress.

“On Personnel and Salary System (Persal), we have checks that we have put in place and that are under way, and our preliminary results are under further interrogation. These include engagements with the Department of Public Service and Administration to check we flagged people who should be flagged,” she said.