MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO: 418

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 15 MARCH 2013

Mr J F Smalle (DA) to ask the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:

(1) (a) When was the investigation into ghost employees in Limpopo launched, (b) what were the findings of the investigation and (c) how many ghost employees were found;

(2) were all departments included in the investigation; if not, which departments were not included;

(3) what (a) was the total amount spent on ghost employees over the past three years, (b) amount has been recovered by her department and (c) action has been taken against any official in this regard?  NW567E

REPLY

(1) The Department of Public Service and Administration did not launch any investigation into ghost employees in Limpopo, but instead it undertook a PERSAL clean-up exercise as part of the Section 100(1)(b) in the departments of Education, Provincial Treasury, Health, Public Works, and Roads and Transport to ensure the reliability and credibility of personnel information.

PERSAL clean-up is an exercise intended to identify and remove unfunded vacant posts from organizational establishment of departments so that there is reliable data about the total number of public servants. As a result the exercise would not be able to indicate how many ghosts were found. It can only indicate how many unfunded vacant posts were found and removed from the departmental establishments. The results of the PERSAL clean-up done in Limpopo are as follows:

(2) No, the PERSAL clean-up referred to above did not involve all departments. The following departments were excluded: Social Development, Agriculture, Sports, Arts and Culture, Office of the Premier, Cooperative Governance Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs, Safety Security and Liaison, and Economic Development Environment and Tourism.

(3) This question is not applicable since there was no ghost employee exercise undertaken in Limpopo. However, in terms of the PERSAL clean-up exercise, there are no funds spent when removing unfunded vacant posts on the departmental establishments. The reason why they are being removed is that they give a false sense that organizational establishments of departments are bloated and that the personnel budget seems to be bloated. PERSAL clean-up does not seek to punish officials involved in managing structures since these are not the results of intentions to contravene the law.

In most cases, proper processes have been followed resulting with the posts being created, but the challenge is that they are not funded. The Department of Public Service and Administration is tightening the approval of organizational structures and is compelling departments to secure funding before new posts are added to organizational structures and establishments.

Assistance is also being given to departments to clean up their PERSAL systems. In Limpopo further exercises to clean up personnel information and achieve data integrity include verification of learners, educators, health professionals and officials' numbers in the Departments of Education and Health by Statistics South Africa (The Health and Education Census Project) which would help facilitate easy planning.

Issued by Parliament, May 17 2013

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