Scandal rocks Compensation Fund
Dozens of employees face arrests for fraud ‘worth millions of rands’
Dozens of Compensation Fund employees have been suspended for widespread fraud allegedly worth millions of rands.
The fund’s commissioner Vuyo Mafata confirmed the precautionary suspensions of 35 employees after fraudulent transactions were discovered at the end of last month.
Mafata said the fund had launched an investigation into the fraud which involved the payment of medical accounts.
Another 11 service providers had payments to them suspended, said Mafata.
“We suspect that some of the payments may have been fraudulent,” he said. Mafata said the employees were precautionarily suspended so as not to compromise the investigation.
A person with knowledge of the suspensions told Sowetan that the amount siphoned off through the fraud amounted to several millions of rands.
However, Mafata said the amount would be determined by the investigation.
The source told Sowetan that one of the suspended workers had been on holiday in the United States, where she visited three states. She had also visited Bali, Indonesia.
The suspended workers allegedly submitted claims using fictitious hospitals that no one had ever heard of and even claimed for electric wheelchairs that were never delivered.
The fund provides social security to all injured and deceased employees.
Two weeks ago, North West doctor David Michael Adams was found guilty in the Pretoria Magistrates’ Court of defraudingthefundofnearlyR400 000.
Adams, who will be sentenced tomorrow, was facing 29 counts of contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and another 29 of theft.
Adams, who is out on a warning, was arrested in 2010 for receiving unlawful payments from the fund. He was offered an opportunity to repay the money before his arrest but did not respond accordingly.
The fund reported 110 fraud-related cases were also under investigation during the 2015/2016 year.
Some of the cases where investigations were completed were referred to the police.
Another 130 financial misconduct cases were investigated in the same period, 60 of which were still in progress and 70 had been completed.
All the cases involved employees and medical practitioners but the fund’s management did not act on the recommendations for any of the 70 cases according to auditor-general Kimi Makwetu.
The Special Investigations Unit is yet to release details of its probe, as requested by Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant.