Mpumalanga Education Department refutes R1.8 Billion irregular payment claims

The Mpumalanga Department of Education has strongly dismissed claims that it paid nearly R2 billion in irregular salaries to former or deceased employees.

The rebuttal follows a report by The Citizen alleging that findings by the Auditor-General (AG) revealed R1.8 billion in irregular salary payments.

The Department refutes this specific allegation, stating that the Auditor-General's 2024/25 report contains no such finding.

However, the Department concedes that overpayments of approximately R19 million were indeed made. They attribute this smaller amount to administrative delays in termination procedures, rather than any evidence of fraud or corruption.

"In the past year, the Department has implemented staff training to improve compliance with termination procedures and strengthened circuit-level monitoring systems for early detection of potential overpayments," said Provincial Education Spokesperson, Gerald Sambo.

Sambo added that there is no evidence of any fraudulent activity associated with the overpayments.