Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – The Department of Employment and Labour welcomes the investigation into allegations of possible corruption and maladministration of the UIF special Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) benefits.
This is being led by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) following the signing of the proclamation authorising the probe by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Director-General of the department Thobile Lamati said they welcomed this investigation.
“We welcome the probe into allegations of possible corruption and maladministration into the Unemployment Insurance Funds special Covid-19 Ters benefits,” said Lamati.
“We have been working with the SIU in any event when the first probe was launched and we are just as anxious to get to the bottom of the allegations and to gain sight to all the facts and which would hopefully bring a close to this chapter.
“Over the last year, the UIF has had a major impact on the lives of workers in this country, distributing an unprecedented over R60-billion to help workers cope with the lockdown blues and we wouldn’t want to have this great work sullied by allegations of corruption and maladministration.
“If any of our officials are found to have been part of the alleged corruption, we will make sure that they face disciplinary action and that the law enforcement agencies prosecute them. We cannot tolerate any corruption and we applaud the president for taking this step in fighting corruption,” he said.
The investigation will focus squarely on the payments of Covid-19 Ters benefits to people who were not entitled to receive such payments or submitted false, irregular, invalid or defective application to the UIF, including the causes of such maladministration.
“The investigation will look at payments that dates back to 1 March 2020 and 1 April this year or that took place after 01 April but relevant to, connected with or involve same people, entities or contracts being investigated.”
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Political Bureau
