The Ministry of Labour plans to take tough action if any officials are implicated in the Western Cape training programme scandal, reports Rehana Rossouw
A CAPE company training unemployed and unskilled workers may have used fake identity books to defraud the Western Cape Department of Labour of more than R1- million.
The department uncovered the scam during departmental restructuring. It turned over its evidence, including documents and sworn statements, to the police last month. Departmental sources believe the scam may date back to 1994.The Commercial Crime Unit has confirmed that it is investigating, but no arrests have been made.
The Mail & Guardian could not confirm this week whether any department officials were involved in the scam, but Labour Minister Tito Mboweni vowed that if any are implicated, “heads will roll”.
The national Department of Labour does not run training courses, but instead allocates millions of rands for human resource development to outside contractors. In the past year, the Western Cape Department of Labour has entered into 143 contracts with 41 businesses to train employees, spending R3,571-million.
Labour Ministry media officer Estelle Randall said there was a “rigorous system of checks and balances” in the funding system. Companies that specialise in training apply to provincial labour departments. The applications are evaluated by selection committees.
Inspectors from the department check that the training is taking place. Trainees are expected to sign a daily attendance register and a claim at the completion of the training. The claim is then submitted to the department, which checks it against the inspectors’ reports before a payment is made.
But, in the past, the trainers were only expected to provide names, identity numbers and signatures of the trainees. When the Western Cape Department of Labour amended the requirements to include addresses of the trainees and details of where they were placed after completing the training, they discovered severe irregularities at a Cape Town company.
Randall said when allegations of fraud had arisen in the past, the department reported it to the police. “Where the police have had reason to believe that personnel in the department were implicated in the fraudulent activity, the department has suspended such people for the duration of the investigation and where they have been found guilty, their services have been terminated.
“The national Department of Labour will take all the necessary steps to eradicate such activity and bring the culprits to book.”
Minister of Labour Tito Mboweni is extremely concerned about the allegations, Randall said.
* Mboweni is to unveil a Green Paper on National Skills Development on Monday, which will include more stringent criteria in the disbursement of training funds.
In a speech to the Chemical Workers Industrial Union bargaining council, Mboweni said the government was committed to “dramatically” increasing the quantity and quality of training in the workplace.
The national Department of Labour is expected to issue a comprehensive strategy paper on National Skills Development, developed with the consultation of unions and employer organisations. “We want employers to spend more money on training,” Mboweni said.
“We want those already in employment to be trained and re-trained. We want a more skilled and literate workforce. We want our workforce to be educated and able to adapt to the rapidly changing economic requirements which national and global conditions impose.”