COMPENSATION FUND: No Place to Hide

COMPENSATION FUND

NO PLACE TO HIDE

by Rona Bekker

Dear employer

NEASA has constantly, and extensively, shed light on the dysfunction, corruption, irregular and wasteful expenditure and maladministration taking place at the Compensation Fund over the last 10 years.

Our organisation has fought, in conjunction with other stakeholders and affected parties, the detrimental proposed amendments to the legislation and rules governing the operations of the Compensation Fund.

As the industry waits with bated breath to see whether the widely and strongly objected rules to the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) will be implemented, despite the disastrous effects it will have on every role player in the compensation value-chain, one beam of light seems to alleviate the dark cloud surrounding this rotten state institution.

Towards the end of December 2021, the Department of Employment and Labour appointed six forensic investigation firms to probe the financial disaster at the Compensation Fund. According to the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, the contracting with the six firms has been concluded and they will commence their investigations in January 2022. These firms were appointed by order of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) after the ill-fated SCOPA hearing in 2021, in which the maladministration and all other faults of the Compensation Fund and its naïvely hubristic management were ruthlessly exposed.

The matters to be investigated, over the next five years (due to the sheer magnitude of the required investigations), will be performed and reported on in phases, including:

  1. Transactions concerning pay-outs and benefits with regards to:

• medical claims transactions;
• pensions;
• temporary total disability;
• permanent disability;
• constant attendance; and
• funeral expense transactions.

  2. Employer services, including:

• employer registration;
• employer assessment;
• variation of assessments; and
• accounts receivables.

  3. Miscellaneous:

• investments and associates;
• cybersecurity;
• conflicts of interest;
• the fund employees;
• accounts payable; and
• supply chain management.

NEASA will hold the Minister to his promise that “consequences will follow for those found liable for misdemeanours”.

We will keep employers abreast of the developments regarding the implementation, or preferably, the scrapping of the latest rules to the COIDA, as well as the outcome of the investigations.

Rona Bekker is a Senior Policy Advisor at the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA).

For more information:
NEASA Media Department
media@neasa.co.za