Department of Labour Minister Thembelani Thulas Nxesi
Photo: Twitter/@NxesiThuli
UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping was placed on precautionary suspension following a report by the Auditor-General of South Africa.
Department of Labour Minister Thembelani Thulas Nxesi
Photo: Twitter/@NxesiThuli
Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Commissioner Teboho Maruping has been placed on precautionary suspension following an investigation by the Auditor-General of South Africa Kimi Makwetu.
The suspension was confirmed to eNCA on Wednesday 2 September just hours before Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi is expected to unpack the findings of the auditor-general regarding the fund.
Auditor-general (AG), Kimi Makwetu, on Wednesday, reported that the relief package redirected by government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, “landed in a weak control environment”.
According to Business Day, Nxesi made the decision to place Maruping on suspension following the auditor general’s report on the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (TERS).
On request of President Cyril Ramaphosa, Makwetu’s office has undertaken a real-time audit of 16 of the key COVID-19 initiatives introduced by the government and the management of R147.4 billion of the funds made available for these initiatives.
This report represents the first in a series of reports that will deal with the financial management of the government’s COVID-19 initiatives, covering R68,9 billion (47%) of the R147.4 billion spending. The audit work per this report is for all expenditure up to and including 31 July 2020.
While the reasons were not yet specified for Maruping’s suspension, we expect that Nxesi will reveal more details during the media briefing at 14:00 on Wednesday. We have also contacted the department for a follow-up statement
Key findings on the payment of UIF TERS benefits are:
“The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is implementing actions to address what we have reported. We further selected payments to employers and bargaining councils to verify that the eligible beneficiaries were paid. The observations in this regard will be included in the next report,” said Makwetu.