THE Passenger Rail Company of South Africa (Prasa) has since 2020 paid salaries to greater than 3 000 ghost employees registered as everlasting staff of their gadget.
This was once printed by way of the brand new Prasa board when it briefed the media about its plans to root out corruption, which has plagued it over a few years.
The placement worsened when criminals began destroying teach stations and rail networks whilst the rustic was once underneath Covid-19 lockdown rules.
Prasa board chairperson Leonard Ramatlakane and board member suggest Smanga Sethene advised the media that their board, which was once appointed in October 2020, had carried out Operation Ziveze (Display Up).
They stated they have been advised that the company had a staff of 17 000, however all through the operation, best 14 000 staff confirmed up with the vital {qualifications} and showed their employment.
Each Ramatlakane and Sethene stated additionally they did a pattern with House Affairs, who showed that no less than 50 international nationals with faux South African IDs have been hired by way of Prasa.
“We best have 14 000 staff. We will be able to’t account for three 000 of them. They did not carry their {qualifications} to permit us to pay their salaries. One of the folks used faux South African IDs to achieve employment. We will be able to’t examine their nationalities.
“We wish to habits investigations into who has been getting paid those monies all alongside,” Sethene stated.
Alternatively, those who showed their {qualifications}, the media heard, must go through a legal vetting gadget to establish if they have got legal data.
“That is our procedure to scrub Prasa. We don’t seem to be going to tolerate corruption,” Ramatlakane stated.
He additionally printed that the Particular Investigating Unit had ordered Prasa to take disciplinary motion towards 44 in their officers for his or her function within the awarding of a multi-billion rail contract to Shifamba Rail, which produced outsized trains for South Africa’s rail gadget.
Ramatlakane added they may best take motion towards 33 of them, as 11 had resigned ahead of the supply of the SIU file.
“We at the moment are within the technique of outcome control. They are going to face fees of contravention of the Public Finance Control Act and contravention of the availability chain control process,” Ramatlakane stated.
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Political Bureau