Employment & Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi says forensic investigators will be appointed by the end of June to get to the bottom of the rot at the Compensation Fund for injured workers and those who contract diseases while on duty, reports Business Day.
‘We need a focused audit, and in my discussions with the Auditor-General, they have been able to guide (the department). I have instructed the DG (of the department) and the commissioner (of the Compensation Fund) to kickstart the process of appointing a service provider. The intention is to ensure that by the end of June, if all works well, we are done with that,’ Nxesi told a meeting of Parliament’s Employment & Labour Portfolio Committee yesterday.
In May, Parliament’s Scopa called on Nxesi to launch a forensic probe into the string of poor audit outcomes, mismanagement and irregular expenditure that have plagued the Compensation Fund for the better part of a decade. The fund, which has reserves of about R30bn, has been in a mess for years amid growing irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.