Cape Town - The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) said the irregular payments to “ghost” employees in the Community Works Programmes (CWP) have significantly decreased from the R1.2 million recorded two years ago.
Speaking during a question session in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Deputy Minister Thembi Nkadimeng said controls were put in place on the CWP in 2021 and that has significantly reduced the value of payments made to deceased participants.
“Starting from a high of R1.2m in the 2021 financial year, we moved down to R245 000 and under the current review, we have reduced to R75 000.
All the verified payments made to implementing agents are recovered,” Nkadimeng said.
She was replying to ANC MP Dikeledi Direko, who said the CWP was one of her department’s biggest expenditure programmes which has provided work to more than 230 000 participants in 2021.
Direko said challenges have dampened the programme’s impact in the form of poor implementation and project management by implementing agents as well as irregular and fruitless expenditure on “ghost” employees.
Nkadimeng noted that the department implemented the CWP policy from October 2021.
“It significantly improved control measures related to expenditure and the role of what implementing agents are supposed to do. We ‘ve moved from disclaimer audit to qualified audit.”
DA MP Rochelle Spies asked whether Nkadimeng has been informed that some CWP implementing agents found guilty of paying “ghost” workers were in line again for the renewal of their contracts.
She also wanted to know if these agents found guilty of paying “ghost” workers have been reported to the National Treasury for blacklisting.
Nkadimeng said: “The process is in a discussion between Cogta and the Treasury’s chief procurement officer to enhance CWP selection and procurement processes. This includes blacklisting ... ”
Cape Times