/ 1 January 2002

RAF suspends chief financial officer

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) said on Friday it had suspended its chief financial information officer (CFO), Duncan Anderson, with immediate effect.

RAF CEO Humphrey Kgomongwe said: ”Anderson will remain suspended with full benefits until investigations are completed into allegations of unauthorized actions committing the RAF in the establishment and/or the operations of one or more business interests.”

Kgomongwe said there had been some media reports in recent weeks alleging certain improper activities by Anderson but stressed his suspension was not in any way informed by or related to allegations made in those reports.

”I will not be deterred from the course of cleaning up this fund so that it can discharge its legislative mandate of compensating road accident victims. Towards this end, the integrity and commitment of all staff — black and white, ordinary and executive — are not negotiable. If people cannot meet those minimum standards, they have no place at the RAF,” he said.

Anderson’s suspension is the fourth at management level in the last few months.

Since last year, the fund has suspended twenty staff members, dismissed two, ensured the arrest of five and the conviction of four of its employees on charges of theft. Sentences ranging from five to ten years have been imposed by the courts.

Externally, since the beginning of this year up to four hundred people have been arrested on allegations of defrauding the RAF.

Those arrested include ordinary claimants, touts, doctors and attorneys. – Sapa