The Road Accident Fund remains a comforting arm of government
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) reaffirmed its commitment to being the country’s social security safety net that covers and consoles those tragically maimed on South African roads.
Following the RAF’s 2016 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Minister Dipuo Peters said that the RAF continues to deliver services to many, many road users in a tough operating climate, where legalistic hurdles have not hindered operational achievements. The fund remains a beacon of hope to the distressed and destitute victims and families of those affected by death and injury on our roads.
Claims expenditure grew to R32.3 billion and accounted for 94% of total expenses, with the employee costs of R1.280 billion (4%) and administration costs of R618 million (2%) making up the balance.
“Over 8,414 funeral claims were paid by the RAF in the year under review and this serves as a candid reminder of how necessary it is for all of us to reduce the frequency, severity and impact of crashes in South Africa,” said Minister Peters.
The Minister said that the number of new claims grew to 188,864 and 188,759 were finalised. Despite the increase in new claims received, the RAF managed to increase productivity outputs by finalizing more claims than before and still reducing the balance of open and unfinalised claims to 217,000 claims, with a noticeable reduction in the number of open, older claims.”
The Minister further said that the effective financial management saw larger sums of money managed by the team in an effective manner with a notable improvement in internal controls and another unqualified audit opinion being obtained.
“I applaud the RAF for identifying a total of R424 million worth of fraudulent claims before payments were made and for taking swift action to ensure that 391 arrests and 231 convictions for fraud were reported. We cannot allow fraudsters, regardless of their professional titles, to steal from victims of car crashes.”
While the litigation of claims is a big part of the business, seeing legal expenditure reduce from 29% of expenditure to 13,4% over five years is proof of success of management interventions to continue making the business more efficient.
Our call for the implementation of the no-fault need-based scheme, the Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) increases in volume and it is indicative of our belief that we can do without a middlemen when rendering services and support to victims of car crashes who need help, now and into the future” Minister said.
RABS will see support rendered to more people who need it in a more comprehensive and sustainable way, while introducing minimum and maximum benefits based on needs. Public consultation on RABS, engagements with the National Treasury and the Office of the State Law Advisor, and consideration by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) on the Bill has been concluded.
Minister Peters said that by expanding its footprint RAF has brought services to the doorsteps of more communities, assisting claimants and settling million’s worth of claims. RAF opened more offices at hospitals, bringing the total of Hospital Service Centres to just over 100, a Walk-in Centre in Beaufort West and relocated the Customer Service Centre in Nelspruit. This physical expansion together with the call centre, activations in communities and the flagship outreach campaign ‘RAF on the Road’, brought services to over 350 000 people last year.
“There are 69 235 followers eager to keep track of what the RAF is doing over a range of RAF social media platforms, with Facebook achieving the highest number of fans at 55,738 as at the end of March 2016,” the Minister said.
The Minister congratulate the RAF for continuously demonstrating that State Owned Enterprises (SOE) can provide service par excellence and compete on an equal footing with the private sector, even when facing catastrophic financial challenges, insolvency and litigious opposition.
“RAF’s corporate pedigree continues to grow and the addition of industry accolades such as the Merit award for ‘Integrated Reporting’ by the Chartered Secretaries Southern Africa; Silver Printing SA Design award for the Integrated Annual Report 2014/15; and the Chief Audit Executive for the 2015 ‘Excellence in Internal Audit Leadership Award’ at the Annual Institute for Internal Auditors Awards Ceremony held by the Institute for Internal Auditors SA are all proof of this growth.
In 2016, Charlene Louw, General Manager: Legal, Compliance and Regulation, won in the ‘Government Category’ for the Business Women’s Association of SA Awards, while the RAF received the ‘Leading Performer’ certificate in the public sector for the 2016 Top Performing Companies,” concluded Minister Peters.
Enquiries:
Ishmael Mnisi
Cell: 072 566 0827
