The North West Department of Education says processes are at an advanced stage, to collect about R114 million in staff debt, which has been accumulating since 2003.
The figure was revealed in a report by the Auditor-General South Africa, which found a financial loss material irregularity in the department’s payroll system “relating to salary overpayments due to employees who had resigned, retired or died and not being timeously removed from the personnel salary system, resulting in payments for services not rendered.”
The department said the staff debt has accrued largely due to manual processes involved in submitting termination documents from various districts.
According to the department, another problem identified is that most of these areas are remote and rural, which has caused delays in submitting critical documentation.
“As a result, some employees continued to receive salary payments after their termination, leading to overpayments.
Salaries are processed in advance around the 15th or 24th of each month, which further contributes to the possibility of overpayments when terminations are not processed in time.
The Department emphasizes that these cases do not involve ghost employees; all affected individuals were legitimately employed by the Department,” read a statement from the department.
In addition, the department said it has made significant progress in the past three years, to address the matter, by tracing affected employees and requiring them to sign Acknowledgement of Debt (AOD) forms to facilitate repayment.
The department says thus far, R24m has been identified for recovery across 2 128 cases.
Meanwhile, Education MEC, Viola Motsumi, highlighted that measures implemented by the department are bearing fruits and will also address the root causes of the problem.
“The Department has introduced internal controls, including an electronic system known as Salary Attendance Leave and Termination (SALT).
This system has significantly reduced salary overpayments linked to delayed terminations.
It updates Human Resources in real time and sends email notifications when an employee exits, enabling immediate processing on PERSAL,” said Motsumi.
In addition, the department officials have also been trained on the system to ensure its effective use.
“Since its implementation, there has been a noticeable reduction in staff debt.
Furthermore, investigations into root causes and the implementation of consequence management measures are ongoing.
To date, 24 disciplinary letters and 64 warning letters have been issued,” remarked Motsumi.
