The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) currently has 2006 unverified employees also known as ‘ghost’ workers.
This was revealed by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Wednesday during his train ride between Saulsville to Pretoria line.
“Initially, Prasa identified 3 100 employees who were not physically verified. Further investigations revealed that some of these workers were on sick leave, annual leave, suspensions and maternity leave,” said Mbalula.
He further said “Prasa currently stands at 2006 unverified employees. The exercise has also uncovered 50 foreign nationals with fraudulent or expired documents”.
Mbalula said the efforts to strengthen governance and build requisite capacity for Prasa to deliver on its mandate are gaining traction.
Last year Prasa initiated a project called Operation Ziveze aimed at validating employees and unearthing ghost workers.
Mbalula said Phase 2 of the project, currently underway, is looking at validating Identity Documents, work permits for foreign nationals and matric certificates.
The minister said to date, Prasa has identified over 400 employees who either have criminal records and/or fraudulent documents.
“Prasa has since frozen the salaries of the 2 006 employees, who comprise 1 278 who have yet to present themselves for physical verification and 728 suspected ghost employees,” Mbalula said.
He said Phase 3 is the final step that will validate qualifications or fraudulent submissions.
Mbalula said Phase 4 will entail tangible action which includes removal of ghost employees from the system and actioning consequences management against those officials found complicit in creating and concealing ghosts in the payroll system, and recovery of losses suffered by Prasa.
“In parallel to this process, Prasa has instituted a forensic audit into payroll matters to enable decisive consequences management,” Mbalula said.
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