Johannesburg - The Auditor-general is gunning for the suppliers and individuals who have illegally benefited from the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), the looting of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the theft of the R350 unemployment grant from people who did not qualify for it.
The standing committee on the auditor-general yesterday came out in support of the investigation conducted by the AG Kimi Makwetu on the billions of rand allocated to fight Covid-19.
Chairperson of the committee, Sakhumzi Somyo, said they noted that the first report by Makwetu covered R230 billion of the R500bn allocated by government.
He said other amounts have been given to the UIF, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the Department of Health.
Somyo said they would heed Makwetu’s call to keep an eye on the use of the funds after irregularities were picked where millions were stolen.
“He (Makwetu) told the committee that the report called on the committee to use its direct oversight actions on how the multi-billion rand stimulus package entrusted for the Covid-19 response was used. He emphasised the detection of risks and tightening of controls that open public funds for abuse,” said Somyo.
In his report released this week, Makwetu painted a picture of theft of some of the funds in various agencies of government.
Dead people, undocumented foreign nationals, prisoners, state employees, social grant recepients and university students were listed as beneficiaries for the UIF’s Temporary Employer/ Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).
In the report Makwetu detailed how government employees, social grant recipients and students were paid more than R140 million from TERS.
More than R685m was paid to foreign nationals without any valid approvals.
In his report, Makwetu revealed how the UIF was abused when it paid R140 556 822 to 35 043 beneficiaries.
National Students Financial Aid Scheme students that received stipends were paid TERS benefit claims of R10335334.
Beneficiaries paid by SANDF received TERS benefit claims of R327 638. Employees paid through the personnel and salary system were paid TERS benefit claims of R41 009 737. Disability grant recipients were paid TERS benefit claims of R69 419. Old-Age grant recipients were paid TERS benefit claims of R88 814 684. Other shocking details include payments of more than R685 million which was paid out to foreign nationals without any valid approvals.
“The UIF did not confirm whether these non-South African citizens were possibly refugees or had valid work permits,” Makwetu said.
A total of 4161 payments amounting to R30 071 248 were made to individuals with invalid identity numbers when checked against the Home Affairs records.
The Labour Department also paid R224 677 to 53 people under the age of 15. Almost R500 000 was paid to dead people in accordance with the records of Home Affairs.
A total amount of R169 900 was paid to individuals who were indicated to be in prison by Correctional Services.
Detailing the irregularities, Makwetu said: “A new system implemented for the Temporary Employee/ Employer relief (TERS) scheme incorrectly calculated the benefits for the first lockdown period (March 27 to April 30) by not taking into account the actual period of inactivity and the portion of the salary paid by employers, resulting in significant overpayments.
“Through analysing the payment data and checking the beneficiary information against other government databases, a high number of payments were flagged that require investigation,” Makwetu said.
He said that included payments to people who were below the legal age of employment, deceased, working in government, receiving social grants or students funded by NSFAS.
“Recalculation of claims and reconciliation with payment data identified overpayments, underpayments, duplicate payments and discrepancies such as approvals for payments before the date of applications.
“Poor input and validation controls on the new system and a manual claims submission process used in the first two weeks of implementation further heightened the risk of invalid or manipulated claim information,” Makwetu said.
He emphasised that such funds should be recovered saying “the UIF should collaborate with other state organs in the intelligence and police services and institute investigations into overpayments as well as payments to deceased persons, UIF employees and inmates”.
Makwetu also said that all the matters should be referred to the newly established Fusion Centre for further investigations.
The Fusion Centre is a central investigative point of all law enforcement agencies in South Africa.
Sunday Independent