Ghost employees 'enjoy' wage subsidy
Innocent Selatlhwa | Friday June 12, 2020 12:57
After receiving over a 100 complaints and also noting that some employees appeared in multiple companies, government has launched investigations into fraud with the view to punish offenders.
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development chief public relations officer, Fenny Letshwiti has told Mmegi that they were not going to rest on their laurels following the complaints.
“We have received more than 100 complaints covering a number of areas including non-payment of employees.
The number of companies implicated is more than 40. I, however, wish to indicate that ever since the Ministry uploaded names of beneficiaries on its website, the number of complaints have diminished,” Letshwiti said.
Letshwiti further said as a result of complaints emanating from April end, payments for 1,083 companies amounting to P4,927,890.92 have been withheld pending verification of certain issues. Letshwiti said the said claims had been paid at the end of April, but they had to investigate before making the second payment.
“Claims made by companies are audited and appropriate action will be taken against companies found to have abused the subsidy. The COVID-19 Relief Fund Secretariat is working behind the scenes to address challenges encountered during the implementation of the wage subsidy. For instance Directors of Companies are called to clarify issues, such as when their employee also appears in another company’s claim,” Letshwiti said. Late in March after the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared a state of emergency for 28 days to curb the spread of the virus.
He said there would be ‘extreme social distancing’ from April 2, 2020 with only those providing essential services allowed to leave their homes. This left businesses suffering with the announcement of a three-month wage subsidy as a silver lining for Batswana employees.
Companies were to apply to get between P1,000 to P2,500 subsidy to supplement, where possible, companies paying employee wages. However, some greedy businesspeople have exploited the system.