DURBAN - THE eThekwini Municipality has been ordered to conduct a physical verification of employees under its expanded public works programme (EPWP) following concerns of ghost employees in the programme.
It was reported by the audit committee that approximately “30 ghost EPWP employees” were migrated to the city’s payroll from a standalone EPWP payroll.
A report on the matter said: “System breakdowns were reported about EPWP before. During the last meeting, it was reported that there are still 30 ghost employees and the physical verification of the employees remains incomplete.
“The audit committee recommended that the physical verification of EPWP employees be accelerated for completion in order to identify any possible irregularities and for further control measures to be put in place to resolve identified irregularities,” it said.
DA councillor Zamani Khuzwayo said the EPWP was a good initiative but it was being abused for political ends and there was too much corruption in the programme.
“In 2019 during the budget meeting I was heckled by other councillors when I raised our party’s objection to increasing the budget of the programme, I was accused of not supporting a programme that is meant to benefit black people.”
He said they had even noticed that in some DA wards, they would be told there is a certain number of EPWP employees only to see the municipal staff doing the actual work.
The management of the municipality has been tasked with compiling and presenting a response to the issue next month.
THE MERCURY