The office of the Auditor-General says Labour and Employment Minister Thulas Nxesi has informed them that the process of implementing preventative measures that they recommended to secure the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has already begun.
Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu says his office is yet to come up with another special report in November as part of the ongoing auditing reporting process.
Senior Auditor, responsible for the auditing of the UIF disbursements, Nana Sikwata appeared before Parliament.
“The Director-General through the minister, the management, had made the commitment that they have already started the process of implementing the preventative controls that we would have recommended. In some instances, some of the processes that we would have to identify, the observations that we would have made a follow up on and reporting on these matters as follow up on as part of the special report will be taken up in November,” explains Sikwata.
COVID-19 corruption I Auditor-General Kimi Makwethu:
Ealier, Nxesi said he had requested the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to probe irregularities and processes regarding the UIF COVID-19 funds.
The report says government’s IT systems are not able to respond to the challenges of distributing the multi-billion rand relief package and that a high number of UIF and South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) payments need to be investigated.
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping was placed on precautionary suspension along with the UIF’s CFO, COO and Head of Supply Chain Management.
The Auditor-General says there were many fraudulent transactions in the COVID-19 relief fund:
Change of grant payment method
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, SASSA announced that it has given beneficiaries of the COVID-19 relief fund six days to change from receiving their grants at the Post Office to their bank accounts.
This is an effort to address challenges some beneficiaries have experienced in trying to access their special relief grant from the Post Offices.
