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By Siviwe Feketha 
2h ago
Johannesburg – Prisoners, government employees, deceased persons and government-funded students are among the thousands who illegally benefited from the government’s multi-million dollar fund aimed at helping workers affected by the shutdown.
These were among a litany of potentially fraudulent activities contained in Auditor General Kimi Makwetu’s report on the funds that the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) disbursed to workers affected by the closure in the form of temporary employment funds (TER). . It has since come to light that the funds have been looted or seriously compromised due to negligence and greed.
The FIU has disbursed R41.6 billion for the benefit of laid off workers and those who suffered pay cuts during the pandemic, and some of them were sent to the wrong beneficiaries, including the dead.
The Minister of Labor and Employment, Thulas Nxesi, has expressed his dismay at the mismanagement of these funds and the possible criminality within the FIU.
He announced the suspension of the FIU commissioner, Teboho Maruping, and the entire management for some of the irregularities in relation to the TERs. These suspensions will have no effect on the continuation of the TER payment to correct the beneficiaries.
Nxesi said he suspended Maruping because the violations occurred under his supervision, including his management team.
“The director general of the department has suspended the direction of the FIU, the financial director, the director of operations and the head of the supply chain. These movements allow the Special Investigation Unit to conclude its forensic investigations without restrictions, ”he said.
According to Nxesi, it had previously asked the FIU to strengthen its financial controls and subsequently invited Makwetu to conduct a mid-term audit to highlight risks and gaps within the institutions.
“We have now received reports from the AG, which point to numerous gaps, risks, and inadequate controls and verification processes. This has resulted in illegal payments, among others, to recipients of state scholarships, students receiving payments from the National Financial Aid Scheme for Students, public servants, FIU employees, prisoners, deceased persons and miners, ”said Nxesi.
He said he noticed there were overpayments and underpayments as well, and took the numerous violations seriously.
Delivering his report earlier on Wednesday, Makwetu said a comparison of government databases had uncovered a litany of potentially fraudulent activities due to weakened systems during the pandemic.
“An opportunity for fraudulent behavior arises when internal control disciplines have been weakened. In this case, that is what we have observed, ”Makwetu said.
The department’s director of operations, Marsha Bronkhorst, has been appointed as acting commissioner of the FIU.
Nxesi said that he had requested the National Treasury to take advantage of the FIU’s technical resources to urgently implement Makwetu’s recommendations, which included further investigation of the transactions.
He promised that everyone involved in the irregularities would be held accountable, as all payments would be reviewed and scrutinized.
He said that private companies implicated in the looting of the FIU would also be taken to account for inflating their TER claims.
“They also have to respond because we must not think that there was rot only within the department or lack of controls. It takes two to tango. There were people outside in some companies and people inside, ”Nxesi said.
The minister, however, defended that the FIU did not give the green light to some of the payments, as workers complained of delays in their payments.
“You had to do verifications. You don’t just pay because people have applied, both on the employer and employee side, ”he said.
He assured that the FIU was continuing to make payments to TER beneficiaries, despite the one-day suspension caused by the Makwetu report.
Political Bureau
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