The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) on Saturday announced the sacking of its chief financial officer due to alleged financial irregularities.
The UIF in a statement said its audit committee and the Deputy Director General of the Department of Labour, Les Kettledas, had been tasked to oversee the finances of the UIF.
UIF commissioner Shakes Mkhonto said the move was in part precipitated by a report of the auditor general, which revealed that there had been non-compliance with various sections of the Public Finance Management Act.
It also showed that the UIF was not complying with Treasury regulations or the Promotion of Access to Information Act. The audit covered a period of 15 months, which ended on March 31 this year.
In the report, the auditor general told Parliament the fund did not know the exact number and characteristics of its insured persons, nor did it know the exact size of the entitlements that these insured persons had accrued.
The auditor general also reported that the fund experienced material breakdown in internal control systems and procedures and also that a formal, documented business continuity plan had not been finalised and implemented at the time of the report.
However, Mkhonto said the UIF turnaround strategy had seen the fund recording a surplus of R1,4-billion.
”We have been able to increase our contribution income from R2,1-billion in 2001 to R3,8-billion in the 2002/03 financial year and this is thanks to our reform programme,” said Mkhonto.
He said to date 560 000 domestic employers had been registered with the Fund and details of 430 000 domestic workers had been captured on the UIF data.
”To date we have registered over three million commercial workers,” the commissioner added.
Mkhonto said despite the successes, the UIF management had been in the process of acquiring a new chief financial officer.
Mkhonto said the appointed task team’s main function was to oversee the general transformation agenda of the finances of the fund. — Sapa