'Rotten apples' must go

2003-06-15 15:40

Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance says members of the Scorpions' human resources department who are guilty of creating ghost workers, must be fired immediately.

All the human resources staff at the National Prosecuting Authority were suspended last week for allegedly creating ghost workers, and pocketing their pay, the Sunday Times reported.

The newspaper said the 35 employees were hauled before National Public Prosecutions director Bulelani Ngcuka and suspended.

The group was suspended after the elite crimebusting unit, the Scorpions, swooped on their own colleagues.

Embarrassment

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) deputy chief executive Beryl Simelane said on Saturday: "This has been an embarrassment to everyone. We decided to suspend the whole HR department as a precautionary measure so that we can do a thorough investigation while they are gone.

"We have charged four officials internally, including a deputy director, and a fifth person was charged criminally," Simelane said.

Now an internal investigation is underway by a special team that will investigate staff appointments across the country over the past two years.

An audit of salaries and temporary positions will be conducted to establish how many ghost workers were employed and how much taxpayers' money has been stolen.

Scorpions rated 100% clean

The human resources department is in charge of managing, recruiting and selecting staff for the NPA, which employs more than 5 000 people, including the Scorpions and the Asset Forfeiture Unit.

This mass suspension followed the arrest of Irvin Leyds, a senior human resources consultant, at his home on May 30 on corruption and fraud charges. Leyds allegedly created three ghost workers and cashed their salaries.

He appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Crime Court, and was released on a R15 000 bail.

Access to the human resources department at the NPA headquarters in Pretoria was strictly controlled in the wake of the crackdown. This was because the area was considered a crime scene, the newspaper said.

The suspension come in the same week that the Scorpions themselves were rated 100% clean by the Integrity Management Unit, a statutory watchdog that was set up in 2001 to investigate the investigators.

The Sunday Times said unlike other agencies, the Scorpions had so far not had any allegations of misconduct levelled against them. The Saturday Star reported that Integrity Management Unit head Dipuo Mvelase said there had not been any single case against the crimebusters.

"I think that one of the reasons for this record is that the way the Scorpions operate is unlike the way the police do," she said. "Their personnel are the peak of what is available; their mechanisms around recruitment are quite tight."

Spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said the Integrity Management Unit was solely tasked with investigating the Scorpions. Their mandate has been extended to cover the entire National Prosecuting Authority.

Probe must be 'swift but thorough'

The DA on Sunday welcomed the Scorpions' speedy action. Advocate Hendrik Schmidt, the DA's deputy spokesperson on justice, said he hoped the investigation would be swift but thorough.

"Surely among the group of suspended staff members there must be some people who are innocent; they should be cleared from all suspicion as soon as possible, and be allowed to return to work."

The guilty people, however, must be charged criminally and dismissed as a matter of urgency.

"These rotten apples should be removed from this elite unit."

- SAPA