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Cape Town - The axe has begun to fall at the troubled Compensation Fund amid calls for more “drastic measures’’ to be taken.
The fund - which compensates workers affected by occupational injuries - would be led by acting commissioner Vuyo Mafata, who has been Chief Financial Officer of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, Labour department director-general Thobile Lamati reported to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.
He said that Commissioner Shadrack Mkhonto has been removed and CFO Johnny Modiba suspended. The changes were due to take effect from June 1, the Labour Ministry said in a statement.
However, Scopa called for more “stringent measures to ensure that the entity functions in a manner it is supposed to”.
Scopa has requested a breakdown of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure that amounted to just more than R12m in the previous financial year, according to a statement issued on behalf of Scopa chair Themba Godi.
Scopa also requested a breakdown of material losses through criminal conduct with an estimated case value of just over R26m.
The Labour Ministry said that a task team appointed five months ago had looked at ways to turn the commission “into a proper functioning entity”.
The Task team ascertained that the fund lacked leadership and had no systems in place in order to run the finances and clams management chain of the entity.
“Interventions have been suggested to rectify the financial and claims management system for the entity,” the Ministry said.
The poor state of the fund was blasted by the Democratic Alliance last month. Releasing a detailed study of the failings, DA MP Ian Ollis said that some doctors and practitioners had waited for almost a decade to be paid:
“The fund is in utter disarray and on the brink of administrative collapse.”
This was despite the fact that it had assets of R52bn available to it.
The SA Medical Association’s Gauteng members were currently owed R13.4m, according to figures provided by the DA. The consequence of non-payment was that doctors were refusing to treat Compensation Fund patients.
Scopa gave Lamati a deadline of end of June to provide a detailed action plan for a turnaround.
The fund - which compensates workers affected by occupational injuries - would be led by acting commissioner Vuyo Mafata, who has been Chief Financial Officer of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, Labour department director-general Thobile Lamati reported to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday.
He said that Commissioner Shadrack Mkhonto has been removed and CFO Johnny Modiba suspended. The changes were due to take effect from June 1, the Labour Ministry said in a statement.
However, Scopa called for more “stringent measures to ensure that the entity functions in a manner it is supposed to”.
Scopa has requested a breakdown of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure that amounted to just more than R12m in the previous financial year, according to a statement issued on behalf of Scopa chair Themba Godi.
Scopa also requested a breakdown of material losses through criminal conduct with an estimated case value of just over R26m.
The Labour Ministry said that a task team appointed five months ago had looked at ways to turn the commission “into a proper functioning entity”.
The Task team ascertained that the fund lacked leadership and had no systems in place in order to run the finances and clams management chain of the entity.
“Interventions have been suggested to rectify the financial and claims management system for the entity,” the Ministry said.
The poor state of the fund was blasted by the Democratic Alliance last month. Releasing a detailed study of the failings, DA MP Ian Ollis said that some doctors and practitioners had waited for almost a decade to be paid:
“The fund is in utter disarray and on the brink of administrative collapse.”
This was despite the fact that it had assets of R52bn available to it.
The SA Medical Association’s Gauteng members were currently owed R13.4m, according to figures provided by the DA. The consequence of non-payment was that doctors were refusing to treat Compensation Fund patients.
Scopa gave Lamati a deadline of end of June to provide a detailed action plan for a turnaround.
