Mohloai Mpesi
THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard that the Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) has, for months, been paying salaries and allowances to people who no longer work there.
The revelations emerged this week during a PAC hearing, where lawmakers discovered that part of the hospital’s payroll is bloated with “ghost” employees who continue to receive salaries despite no longer reporting for duty.
QMMH has been dogged by allegations of financial mismanagement and politically influenced appointments, and the PAC’s ongoing inquiry has now uncovered further evidence of ghost workers on the payroll.
PAC chairperson, ‘Machabana Lemphane-Letsie, told the hearing that an employee identified as Mr Patlo had continued receiving a salary for more than a year after he was dismissed following disciplinary proceedings.
“There is a person called Patlo who was suspended and disciplinary action was taken against him. A decision was made that Mr Patlo must be dismissed… it is months now that Mr Patlo has been receiving a salary despite having been dismissed from employment,” she said.
Ms Lemphane-Letsie said Mr Patlo had allegedly warned that he would expose others involved in the scheme if action was taken against him.
“He said, ‘I will not go down alone’.”
QMMH Finance Manager, Tšele Sehlabo, confirmed that Mr Patlo remained on the hospital’s payroll.
“Last week when I checked, I realised that indeed he is still on the payroll,” he said.
Ms Lemphane-Letsie further alleged that Mr Patlo had been implicated in the recruitment of ghost workers before disciplinary action was taken against him.
“Mr Patlo was involved in ghost hiring. There is a criminal case and a misconduct case. On the misconduct side, disciplinary action was correctly recommended and conducted, but it was never implemented — from last year until now. Even this month, he will probably still get paid.
“This makes me question why the people who are supposed to implement the recommendations never did, unless they wanted Mr Patlo to keep earning.”
She said the hospital had introduced a system intended to eliminate ghost workers but that it had yielded little success.
Payroll Administrator, Khethang Liphoto, told the committee he had heard allegations of ghost workers but had not personally identified any. He said he relied entirely on information supplied by his supervisor, Deputy Managing Director for Human Capital, Planning and Contracts, Thenjiwe Dlangamandla, to determine who should be paid.
“I have not removed any ghosts. I have only heard people talking about ghosts, but I have not seen them myself. I use a manual Excel spreadsheet, which is a document I was given by Ms Thenjiwe.”
Mr Liphoto said the hospital’s payroll fluctuated over the past year, with employee numbers standing at 1632 in July 2025, rising to 1696 in August before falling to 1631 in September. The figures then increased to 1642 in October, 1647 in November and 1651 in December, before dropping to 1649 in January, 1645 in February, 1642 in March, 1646 in April, 1609 in May, 1607 in June and 1605 in July.
Asked whether he would know if he was paying ghost workers, Mr Liphoto said he would not because he simply processed the information provided by his supervisor.
“I would not know because I am given the payroll by my boss. When there is a new employee, I insert their salary and allowances. I also remove those who resign or whose contracts are terminated.”
Ms Lemphane-Letsie questioned whether he had been provided with supporting documentation to verify that the 1632 employees actually worked at QMMH.
Mr Liphoto said he had always worked from the spreadsheet alone.
“That would mean you might have been given ghosts that were already there before the system, and your job was simply to load them into it,” Ms Lemphane-Letsie said.
“It is possible,” Mr Liphoto replied.
Ms Lemphane-Letsie said she believed ghost employees had simply been transferred from the manual spreadsheet into the electronic payroll system.
“I suspect that among the 1632, you transferred ghosts from the manual spreadsheet into the system.
“Your problem is that you have ghosts in the payroll, and we cannot allow the people benefiting from these ghosts to keep being paid. The spreadsheet Mr Liphoto uses has ghosts in it, and he knows it. Mr Patlo is not the only one who lost his job over this — Andile Dlangamandla is also no longer working at QMMH because of ghost workers.
“The system is there to help us remove ghosts, but it is applied selectively. This hospital’s biggest problems lie in the payroll and finance departments. Yes, we will indeed close this hospital.”
Asked whether employees had been paid for July, Mr Liphoto confirmed that salaries had already been processed.
“Employees have been paid for July.”
When asked whether the payments had again been processed using the same spreadsheet, he replied in the affirmative.
“We have a problem of ghosts at Tšepong. We need to prioritise dealing with it. I am telling you that among those 1632 people, there are ghosts,” Ms Lemphane-Letsie said.
Another PAC member, Montoeli Masoetsa, said the Committee had also uncovered a case in which a finance manager, whom he did not name, allegedly registered four of his own vehicles to provide services to the hospital, despite the vehicles not being used while payments continued.
“The fact that Mr Patlo said he would not go down alone is a threat in itself. We live in a small country and we know each other.
“We have documents showing that a finance manager hired out four of his vehicles, but none of them are working there, yet he is being paid. We are yet to get to the bottom of that because of the severity of the corruption at QMMH.”
Mr Masoetsa said the Committee was considering recommending the hospital’s closure, citing mounting debts and alleged politically motivated recruitment.
“By the end of October, you are gone — we are closing it. I am a member of the Economic Cluster, and we received a report on the Free State referrals that were made without the consent of the Principal Secretary, after which M218 million was owed.
“We are sitting with M145 million in Free State debt because people do as they please.
“We know which political party the 394 people employed at the hospital come from. We are going to alert the minister to these findings, including the fraudulent qualifications of some doctors, and we will not be allocating money to the hospital.
“We are not going to stand for this nonsense. This is not a talk show where we sit here covering for each other. These things are embarrassing.”
