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Six forensic firms will need at least five years to unravel the depths of financial mismanagement, neglect, corruption and “rottenness”- as Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi puts it – at the heart of the Compensation Fund.
Nxesi said in a written Parliamentary answer this week that a panel of six forensic investigation firms have been appointed and contract negotiations had been concluded for a probe into the fund.
The investigation was ordered by the Standing Committee of Public Accounts(Scopa) in May.
“Firms will be commencing with the work from January 2022, though the initial planning is being conducted in December 2021,” Nxesi said in the reply.
The government-run fund is financed by employers and aims to pay compensation to sick and injured workers, or the families of employees who have died on the job.
The fund however has faced large-scale criticism, including about lengthy delays in paying out claims, poor leadership and a decade-long stretch of poor audit outcomes, including findings of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which Scopa says highlights a “total collapse of internal controls”.
‘Is it neglect? Is it corruption?’
Nxesi told Scopa in May that the fund is “rotten to the core”.
“It can’t continue to have disclaimers after disclaimers… is it neglect, is it corruption, is it structural issues?
“I think it’s acombination of the different factors. I think there are basic controls we need to have that have been neglected.”
Department spokesperson Musa Zondi told Fin24 on Wednesday that the six firms that will conduct the investigation are SNG Grant Thornton/TSF Africa Forensics, Abucus, Nexus Forensic Services, Stone
Turn Group South Africa, BDO/Hidden Links and Bowman Gilfillan.
Investigations will be broken down into phases and reported at the completion of each phase. It is estimated that all will be finalised over a five-year period, due to the magnitude of the investigations — fin24
Online Reporter