SIU roped in to investigate Prasa’s ‘ghost employees’

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is being roped in to investigate the Passenger Rail Agency’s (Prasa) ghost workers.

On Tuesday Prasa bosses told parliament’s public accounts watchdog Scopa they suspected senior employees in the company were involved in the scam and hence the need to get the unit involved.

Prasa acting CEO Hishaam Emeran said 1,159 employees “resigned” from the agency earlier this month. There were no resignation letters, but people exited the system, he said.

“Two weeks ago, we clarified 3,000 ghost workers had been unverified.

“We saw in a very short space of time a high number of resignations, people leaving the organisation. There were 1,159 resignations, which immediately raised suspicion,” he said.

This brought the number of suspected ghost employees down to 1,300, he said.

Prasa’s Operation Ziveze, which is aimed at uncovering ghost employees and other corruption in the agency, also picked fraudulent qualifications and people with criminal records, said Emeran.

Outraged MPs had questions about the 1,159 resignations.

“Were their pensions paid out, and what about other benefits?”

Emeran said while no-one has been fired, they realised that the matter was much broader, deeper and more sophisticated than they expected .

Board chair Leonard Ramatlakane said Operation Ziveze was a project initiated by the board because it suspected it was likely some managers at Prasa “had not managed the process to get to the ghosts”.

“We also said it is suspicious that in one swoop 1,159 employees resigned. We couldn’t be provided with resignation letters for the 1,159 employees.”

Ramatlakane said they decided to go to the SIU to follow the money paid in salaries to ghost workers.

“We suspect the elephant is in the room. Somebody must have been able to aid this process to this extent,” said Ramatlakane.

The SIU has agreed to take up the matter and follow the money and look at who was paid, he said.

Prasa bosses will meet the SIU on Friday to iron out what needs to be investigated, and what could be investigated without a proclamation.

The rail entity remains in a dire financial position, and it is not generating sufficient revenue to cover its operating costs. The group posted a loss of R1.9bn for the 2021/22 financial year. It received a disclaimer of opinion from the auditor-general, its fourth in a row.

Prasa has been in decline for several years and has seen a significant drop in passenger numbers.

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