400 000 in welfare fraud probe
Pretoria - The special investigating unit (SIU) is probing 400 000 people who might be receiving illegal social grants and pensions from the government, said its head Willie Hofmeyr on Thursday.
He said the first phase of the probe, which started last year, focused on government employees. The unit would now start looking at private individuals.
Hofmeyr said: "We are dealing here not with thousands or tens of thousands of investigations to be done, but with hundreds of thousands... people have to realise that this investigation is very big."
In 2007 the department of social welfare would fund the cost of the investigation, contributing R60m for 200 extra SIU investigators.
The department estimated the social welfare system was losing R1.5bn in fraud each year.
Hofmeyr said since the start of the investigation 110 000 irregular grants had been cancelled, saving R400m.
Scale of action "huge"
By the end of this year, the SIU aimed to cancel another 125 000 grants, worth a total of R500m.
Hofmeyr said that, of 44 000 government employees receiving grants, 21 588 had been found to be false.
"They have been referred to their departments for disciplinary action.
More than 15 000 have had their grants cancelled and about 14 000 of those are being considered for prosecution."
He said the scale of action was "huge".
The unit had had discussions with the department of public service and administration, which was finding ways of dealing with the 21 588 disciplinary actions.
"The SIU also has tried to recover money from those who are able to repay.
"However, this is extremely cumbersome as court litigation is required to compel a debtor to repay, and they cannot be forced to repay more than they can afford," said Hofmeyr.
On Wednesday the Democratic Alliance said if any public servant couldn't pay the amount they stole immediately, market-related interest should be charged on the amount.
'They stole public money'
DA spokesperson on social development Mike Waters said: "What kind of penalty are public servants having to pay if they can pay off the exact amount they stole at terms that suit them? This amounts to nothing more than a soft loan.
"They must realise they stole from public money, and they must feel the consequences of what they have done."
"A relatively small group have agreed to repay substantially less than what they should be able to afford.
"In these cases it is unacceptable that they repay small amounts over long periods, despite the fact that they earn substantial salaries.
Hofmeyr said: "Thus the SIU has already identified a list of cases where it intends to take legal action to ensure proper repayments are made."
"The joint investigation by the SIU and the department is on an unprecedented scale in South Africa.
"About 200 staff will work full-time for several years investigating hundreds of thousands of potential cases and taking thousands of cases to court for criminal prosecution," said Hofmeyr.
News source: www.news24.co.za
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