Pretoria – In a bid to eliminate fraud and ensure that public funds are used more effectively, the Gauteng Department of Health is undertaking a process to verify all its employees and to update payroll information.
During the process, employees will have their fingerprints and identities checked to establish that they are authentic employees of the department.
This initiative will be conducted through Identification Verification Solutions (IVS), which is done by means of fingerprint verification against biometric information.
The department said the process was intended to establish the actual number of people employed.
“It will also lead to the clean-up of the personnel register by eliminating those that are deceased or no longer in the employ of the department.
“We are calling on all employees to cooperate with the officials conducting this process to ensure the smooth running of this important initiative," said Health MEC Hope Papo.
In addition to eliminating ghost employees, the benefits of the process to the department include confirming the authenticity of officials currently on the department’s payroll and confirming ownership of banking details for verified officials.
The process is expected to be finalised by the end of March 2013. – SAnews.gov.za