National department responsible for public service human resources, including the PERSAL payroll system used by all government departments. The DPSA administers the payroll for 1.3 million public servants (R850 billion+ wage bill). Ghost worker fraud — described by the DPSA itself as "deliberate and deeply embedded fraud, orchestrated by criminal syndicates operating within the state's own departments" — has compromised the system to an estimated R3.9 billion annually.