The Ziveze Campaign stamps out ghost employees at the Gauteng Department of Health and its facilities.
The Gauteng Department of Health is out to eradicate ghost employees from its system with a province-wide Ziveze (Reveal Yourself) Campaign.
Initiated last October, the employee verification initiative aims to confirm if the 85 642 employees on the department’s payroll can be accounted for.
As of February 25, salaries were frozen for 66 unverified employees, excluding pending cases. Ghost employees contribute to high fraudulent employee payments in organisations globally.
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners released the 12th edition of their report, Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations, finding that ghost employees were one of the most prevalent types of occupational fraud and that payroll fraud amounted to 8% of reported cases.
The campaign was started by MEC for Health and Wellness Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko to curb the department’s wasteful expenditure by ensuring every person receiving a salary from it is a legitimate employee actively contributing to providing healthcare services.
“We have limited resources at our disposal to waste on ghost employees. No reasonable employee would object to being verified,” stated Nkomo-Ralehoko.
“All employees were urged to physically verify themselves by visiting their facility’s human resources office or any designated verification site. Those employees continuing to void verification risk permanent removal from the payroll and criminal cases opened against them.
“So far, phase one verified 31 345 employees. Phase two started on January 13, focusing on verifying the remaining 54 297 employees across all health facilities, leaving 23 789 employees yet to be verified,” Nkomo-Ralehoko.
“With this initiative, the department seeks to improve accountability, prevent fraudulent salary payments and optimise resource allocation for quality healthcare delivery.
“The Ziveze Campaign is a commitment to eradicating payroll fraud and ensuring the responsible use of public funds to strengthen the healthcare system and improve service delivery.
“The department will continue strengthening systems and controls to effectively manage the compensation of employees budget,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.
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