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Payroll and Ghost Employee Fraud Prevention

Payroll is one of the largest recurring cash outflows and a persistent fraud target across African public and private payrolls. This course shows finance, HR and audit teams how ghost employees, inflated hours, diverted deductions and terminated staff schemes are perpetrated and concealed. Delegates learn to run headcount verifications, reconcile the master file and design controls that close the gaps.

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What you will be able to do

  • Map the payroll cycle and identify where fraud risk concentrates.
  • Detect ghost employees through headcount and biometric verification.
  • Analyse the payroll master file for duplicate and anomalous records.
  • Design segregation of duties between HR, payroll and finance.
  • Investigate suspected payroll manipulation and recover losses.
  • Build a continuous payroll audit and exception reporting routine.

Course outline

  1. 01The Payroll Cycle and Fraud Risk Map
  2. 02Ghost Employee Schemes and Physical Verification
  3. 03Master File and Banking Detail Manipulation
  4. 04Falsified Hours, Overtime and Commission Fraud
  5. 05Deduction, Loan and Third Party Payment Diversion
  6. 06Segregation of Duties and System Controls
  7. 07Payroll Data Analytics and Exception Reporting

Who should attend

This programme is aimed at payroll managers, HR practitioners, internal auditors and finance officers responsible for salary processing and payroll integrity.

Dates, venues and fees

DatesVenueDaysFeeCalendarRegister
8 to 9 Oct 2026Johannesburg2R10,000Register
12 to 13 Oct 2026Cape Town2R10,000Register
13 to 14 Oct 2026Durban2R10,000Register
14 to 15 Oct 2026Pretoria2R10,000Register
15 to 16 Oct 2026Windhoek2US$1,100Register
19 to 20 Oct 2026Gaborone2US$1,100Register
20 to 21 Oct 2026Maseru2US$1,100Register
21 to 22 Oct 2026Mbabane2US$1,100Register
22 to 23 Oct 2026Lusaka2US$1,100Register
26 to 27 Oct 2026Harare2US$1,100Register
27 to 28 Oct 2026Lilongwe2US$1,100Register
28 to 29 Oct 2026Blantyre2US$1,100Register
29 to 30 Oct 2026Mozambique2US$1,100Register
2 to 3 Nov 2026Nairobi2US$1,100Register
3 to 4 Nov 2026Dar es Salaam2US$1,100Register
4 to 5 Nov 2026Kigali2US$1,100Register
5 to 6 Nov 2026Kampala2US$1,100Register
9 to 10 Nov 2026Accra2US$1,100Register
10 to 11 Nov 2026Lagos2US$1,100Register
11 to 12 Nov 2026Cairo2US$1,100Register
12 to 13 Nov 2026Mauritius2US$1,100Register
16 to 17 Nov 2026Dubai2US$1,100Register
17 to 18 Nov 2026Online2US$900Register

Fees are per delegate. South African venues are priced in rand; other locations and online in US dollars. Fees exclude 15% VAT where applicable. Group bookings of three or more delegates from the same organisation qualify for a reduced rate; contact us for a quotation.

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