R288m spent on ghost health workers

The KZN Health Department has 1 553 ghost workers who are milking taxpayers of millions of rands in salaries a year.

Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has 1 553 ghost workers who are milking taxpayers of more than R288 million in salaries a year.

 This is according to a reply in the legislature to the DA by the MEC for Health, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, on the progress of the department’s internal audit of staff.

The ghost workers were uncovered as part of a provincial and national government drive to count and verify every employee and root out people claiming undue salaries.

The audit on KZN departments began after a provincial cabinet decision.

According to Dhlomo, the provincial Department of Health raised concerns about ghost employees in October last year.

An audit was launched and conducted in 22 hospitals including Addington, Edendale, RK Khan and King Edward VIII hospitals.

“Salaries have been frozen and the in-house team is working on identifying officials who created or allowed the existence of ghost employees and other parties who benefited from the scheme,” Dhlomo said.

Imran Keeka, the DA’s provincial Health spokesman, said they were “stunned” by the number of ghost employees.

“It points to gross mismanagement and extreme tardiness on the part of the MEC and his department. The sheer number of ‘ghost’ employees is evidence that individuals have been taking advantage of the system for a very long time.

“It is intolerable that more than R288m per year is being paid to people who have no intention of setting foot inside a hospital while health services continue to decline,” he said.

Keeka said the lack of transparency over whether some hospital audits were complete or not was a concern.

“The latest reply confirms that the audit is being conducted by the DoH (Department of Health) along with a panel of contracted investigators.

“Their salary bill, along with the total cost of the exercise, will only be known at the end of the month. Excellent health care is the right of every citizen in our province. In failing to deal timeously with the looting of its own coffers, MEC Dhlomo and his department have let down the people of KZN,” he said.

Spokesman for the KZN Department of Health, Sam Mkhwanazi, said: “The Department is one of the biggest employers in the province with a workforce of close to 80 000.

“The audit was initiated by the department as part of its ongoing proactive efforts to root out fraud and corruption within its ranks.

“As the audit process is now complete, the department has embarked on the next phase to identify employees who might have made themselves guilty of stealing from taxpayers by creating fictitious employee profiles.

“Once this process is completed, the department will not hesitate to ensure that the alleged culprits face the full might of the law.”

Desmond Motha, the MEC’s spokesman, said that no one had yet been arrested but investigations were continuing.

“With so many people under its employ, the department has to constantly check how its money is spent as part of good governance ethics,” he said.

Last year, the salaries of 388 KZN Education Department staff were frozen because they could not be verified.

Earlier this year North West province discovered 36 000 ghost employees had been drawing a combined amount of R19 billion in salaries.

National Treasury, working alongside various tiers of government, said they were clamping down on the crime.

Daily News