Cape Town - As Corruption Watch released its report on Temporary Employer / Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) corruption on Monday, the provincial labour inspectorate said it was still inundated with Ters related complaints.
“I foresee us still being busy until next year, we are inundated with complaints, we can’t keep up. The volume of complaints against capturing is huge,” provincial chief inspector David Esau said.
Esau’s comment followed the release of the Covid-19 Ters Corruption at Work report, highlighting the trends contained in 126 whistle-blower accounts relating to Ters corruption.
By July 31, 2020, a total of R37.1-billion had been disbursed from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) – but not all employees received the funds due to them, the report said. Most reports received came from Gauteng (57), followed by Western Cape (15) and KwaZulu-Natal (12). The big metropolitan municipalities, City of Johannesburg (30), City of Tshwane (18), City of Cape Town (14), and eThekwini (9) led the way.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the fault lines in our society, along with the weaknesses in how funds and benefits are administered, and whether they reach the intended beneficiaries,” head of legal and investigations at Corruption Watch, Karam Singh said.
The people most commonly implicated in corrupt acts related to Ters were payroll officers, finance personnel and managers. Inspectors taking bribes, as well as third parties who offered support to access benefits were also implicated.
Most complaints (88%) were from employees whose income had dried up or been drastically reduced, desperately trying to follow up about when their Ters claims would be paid out.
A number of employees checked the Department of Labour’s website and found the money had been paid out but not paid to them.
In the report, employees also detailed how their employer did not provide payslips or IRP5s, and paid wages in cash, allegedly due to tax evasion.
“Most complaints we receive are related to companies receiving money and not paying it over. With the understanding people return back to work still applying for Ters and thinking they are getting a salary why worry about Ters. But workers are getting very clever and continue to look on the system,” said Esau.
Esau said their systems had improved since Ters was first introduced.
“Now our system can pick up if someone is contributing to the UIF, it means they are working hence they are not entitled to Ters funds,” he said.
Corruption Watch said their findings were being referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for the Fusion Centre to investigate.