Pretoria – The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is auditing companies that claimed its Covid-19 temporary employer-employee relief scheme (Ters) with a special focus on employers who defrauded the government scheme.
Phase two of the UIF’s “Follow the Money Project”, that started this month, has also set its sights on employers who did not declare employees and kept Covid-19 Ters money for themselves, instead of paying their workers.
UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping said the Fund was implementing an “on the spot as well as an overtime recoupment process”.
The process will apply in cases in which, before March 2020, employees were not declared by employers. In such instances, 70% of the 2% contributed by the Fund will be recovered immediately.
“In these cases, only 30% will be recouped over a period of time from employers. In cases where monies were claimed from the UIF but did not reach the intended employees, 50% will be immediately recouped by our teams,” Maruping said.
The UIF said this initiative formed part of Phase 2 of the UIF’s “Follow the Money Project” that had already recovered over R900 million.
The project saw the UIF employ six audit companies to follow all Covid-19 Ters money to ensure that the correct amount was paid to the workers “at the right time”.
The six auditing companies are now being bolstered by a team from the Fund that is visiting employers to conduct an internal verification of the declared employees.
“We are checking all the companies that were paid Covid-19 Ters but at the moment we are focusing on the ones that have been the focus of the Auditor General of South Africa. Once that is done, we will visit all the other companies that were paid by the UIF,” said Maruping.
“When we visit you for the ‘Follow The Money Project’, we are checking the information you declared with us; the number of employees and figures that an employer has declared with the Fund is what we will look at.”
Maruping also spoke about the importance of complying with the Fund’s laws.
“Employers are obligated by Section 56 of the Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA) and Chapter 2 of the Unemployment Insurance Contributions Act (UICA), to register and declare their workers to the Fund, as well as pay monthly contributions,” he said.
UIF Deputy Director of Compliance Siphamandla Gumede called on employers to comply with the law. He warned companies about the legal risks of failing to comply with the Unemployment Insurance Act.
In March, Maruping welcomed the conviction of a couple who cheated the UIF Ters out of more than R10m.
Moroko Moremi, 37, and his wife Treasure Moremi, 34, were found guilty of fraud by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. This was after the couple, who are directors of Denmeng Trading, applied for Covid-19 Ters funds for 553 workers when, in fact, they employed 22 people.
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