A new Compensation Fund Commissioner has been appointed following criticism by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that the Labour Department was overlooking financial mismanagement at the entity.
Vuyo Mafata has the unenviable task of turning around the Compensation Fund, which has according to Scopa accumulated irregular expenditure amounting to R1 billion.
He was Chief Financial Officer at the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and acted as Fund Commissioner since last June.
“His current focus (is) on improving the business case of CF that is focused on addressing; Service delivery challenges - paying claims on timeFinancial management challenges, administrative challenges - to address operational efficiencies; and human resources - to deal with capacity and skills shortage,” said the Department of Labour in a statement.
Mafata spent most of his career at the UIF, where he served in different capacities within its finance structures since 2005.
He will oversee the Fund which currently has R52 billion in reserves, and has an operating revenue of just above R7-billion.
His former role at the UIF required him to implement systems for internal controls to “safeguard funds”, a skill he will certainly need to get the Compensation Fund functional and back in Scopa's good books.
Labour Bureau