Dead civil servants still on govt payroll, AG finds

An audit by the Office of the Auditor-General has found that the ministry of labour does not have mechanisms in place to verify whether it is still paying salaries to staff members who have since died.

The findings are detailed in the ministry's audit report for the 2022 financial year.

“The audit found deceased workmen’s compensation employees still active on the payroll module of the ministry and they were paid a monthly benefit even after the date of death,” it noted.

Auditor-General Junias Kandjeke noted that the ministry could not determine who - among staff members it was paying remuneration to – had died.

“The account officer indicated that even though the beneficiaries are on the ministerial payroll, the ministry does not have access to information on whether they are still alive or not,” the report said.

SSC verification

The ministry, the auditor-general found, was reliant on the records of the Social Security Commission (SSC) to verify which of its employees had died.

“The ministry is currently busy with the compilation of a database of all compensation awards active on the payroll system by gathering all released information from SSC to allow payroll verification to be conducted annually by the ministry to avoid similar situations in the future,” the report read.

Other audit concerns flagged included how the ministry accounted for its revenue.

“The revenue for the 2021/2022 financial year reported by the accounting officer differs from the revenue for the 2021/2022 financial year reflected in the revenue ledger. It is recommended that the accounting officer should ensure that the reported revenue should not differ with revenue reflected in the revenue ledger,” the auditor-general wrote.