I think in a private company you'd need to prove not only that the hiring was a waste of funds since the person was ineffective but also that they premeditated

I think in a private company you'd need to prove not only that the hiring was a waste of funds since the person was ineffective but also that they premeditated and succeeded at damaging the company during their tenure to get a general ruling that'd result in jailtime or a government enforced fine - the other recourse a company might have is if they committed fraud when they signed their employment contract. I think it'd be extremely dangerous for private corporations to run to the government for enforcement in the case that this sort of fraud occurs and that it'd be well if judges were highly skeptical of employers - otherwise, given the power imbalance of employers, they may be able to abuse such a system to subsidize their labour costs. Private employers should also be given no opportunity to reclaim any costs arising from such a situation[1], as that too could be too easily abused. 1. And currently they are not, if you've ever wondered why nearly every employer prorates vacation time even for senior employees it's because if, on Jan 1, you took all your vacation days and then quit - there is no legal way for the company to try and reclaim the wages you were erroneously paid out - though if there was any pending funds coming to you (a bonus for instance) the company can usually deduct costs from those funds or just wholly withhold them, depending on the way that payment was described.