Kandjeke finds ghost workers on labour ministry payroll

• By Erasmus Shalihaxwe

An audited financial report for the Ministry of Labour, Industrialisation and Employment Creation found that deceased workers’ compensation is still active on the ministry’s payroll and were paid a monthly benefit even after death.

The 2022 financial year report submitted to Parliament for further scrutiny by the Auditor General Office indicated that deceased people were still getting paid with full benefits.

However, the report did not indicate how many deceased people were on the payroll and how much the ministry spent on them.

According to the Auditor General, the ministry’s management explained that the accounting officer indicated that even though the beneficiaries are on the ministerial payroll, the ministry does not have access to information on whether the said employees are still alive.

“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 the Social Security Commission to allow payroll verification to be conducted annually by the Ministry to avoid similar situations in the future,” reads the report.

The Auditor General recommended that the accounting officer put measures in place to ensure that all deceased workers’ compensation is removed from the payroll system and measures are put in place to prevent the same situation from happening again.

Furthermore, it was recommended that the accounting officer indicate how the ministry will recover the money paid to the deceased employees.

The ministry was also found to have spent an unauthorised amount of N$ 1 608 524.42.

In response to the issue, the accounting officer indicated that the ministry had introduced an electronic commitment register to record all financial transactions and record all expenditure trends.

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