Treasury orders nationwide verification, warns of criminal charges for ghost workers

National Treasury has issued an instruction ordering nationwide verification of public servants flagged as possible ghost workers and warned that identified improper payments could lead to criminal prosecution under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (PRECCA).

Deadlines and verification steps

The instruction, issued by Director-General Dr Duncan Pieterse, sets a two-stage timetable for verification. Online verification begins on Monday, June 15, with Treasury giving itself until 31 August to complete the online phase and to provide accounting officers with information on anomalies requiring further checks. Departments must complete physical verification of identified public servants by 31 October and submit consolidated reports on outcomes and corrective action.

How employees will verify

The instruction requires that each government employee will receive a unique QR code on their payslip to access the verification portal and confirm their details using a cellphone or other device. Accounting officers are required to support employees who cannot access the portal on their own.

Legal consequences and reporting duties

Pieterse warned that non-compliance with the instruction is financial misconduct under the PFMA and must be managed in line with Treasury Regulations. He also set out immediate reporting obligations: if conduct amounts to an offence under the PFMA or otherwise, accounting officers must report the matter to the South African Police Service (SAPS). The instruction also notes that PRECCA places a duty on persons in authority to report known or suspected corrupt transactions and that failure to do so is a criminal offence.

“Ghost worker schemes constitute systemic fraud against the State and undermine fiscal integrity,” Pieterse said.

Corrective actions required

The instruction requires accounting officers and officials to cooperate fully with disciplinary and criminal investigations. It also directs that any wrongly granted payments to officials on the payroll must be corrected and that overpayments be managed in terms of the Public Service Act. Accounting officers must recover losses or damages from unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure in accordance with Treasury Regulations and initiate disciplinary proceedings where misconduct is found.

Data, previous announcements and biometric step

In last year’s Budget Speech, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced a data-driven audit of ghost workers starting with national and provincial departments. Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration, with other institutions, have begun analysing Persal payroll data. Godongwana disclosed that data analysis had identified over 4,000 potential ghost workers, which Treasury said are data anomalies requiring verification and are not confirmed ghost-worker cases.

The instruction follows a recent launch by Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber of a system using biometric authentication and liveness detection to confirm whether public servants on the payroll are real, active individuals.

Who will be physically verified?

• Public servants with details that cannot be verified against the national population register due to low-quality photographs or lack of a smart ID or registration on the national population register.
• Employees who received more than one basic salary payment into different bank accounts in the same month or were linked to bank accounts receiving payments from more than one Persal number in the same month.
• Employees who changed their bank accounts at least three times during the calendar year (January to December).

Treasury said identified cases may require further investigation and verification to determine whether payments relate to ghost workers.