The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has stepped up gear to root out fraud within the organisation, with a number of employees being dismissed and arrested.
This was disclosed by Boas Seruwe, UIF commissioner, in his presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Labour in Cape Town on Wednesday.
He said the fraud, which took place from April 2010 to date, had cost the fund a total of R4 million.
“This fraud either takes the form of work and draw, where people work and continue to draw UIF benefits or employees of the fund siphoning money off the system,’’ he said.
The commissioner said in total, 286 cases of fraud have been detected. “In KwaZulu-Natal, four officials of the department have been arrested. In the Eastern Cape, two employees have been dismissed, with the hawks pursuing criminal cases as is the case with an employee in the Northern Cape,” he said.
The commissioner said the message to employees involved in fraud or intending to do so was quite clear: “the long arm of the law will catch you if you defraud the system.”
Mothusi Legwale
Cell: 082 823 1380
Unemployment Insurance Fund on a drive to end fraud
