Provisioning Triggered at Petition Entry

Have a self-enrollment flow that requires approval. When a petitioner completes the self-enrollment form and submits, 5 identical notifications are created that contain:

---- Begin Snip -----
Comment Provisioning failed for CO-1 LDAP: DN component employeeNumber not available
Status Pending Resolution Cancel
Source co_people
Subject bob bigguns
Recipient admin
Actor (blank)
Action PRVX
Created Today, 16:51
Last Notification Today, 16:51
Resolved (blank)
---- End Snip -----

1 - this does seem an error for provisioning to be called before the petition is approved - the missing field, employeeNumber, is not created until approval.

2 - why five notifications? the generated email will drive the admins nuts. Also, can the emails be turned off?

If there is any other info I can provide, please let me know.

If this is indeed an error and cannot be rectified quickly, can you give some hints where to look?