THE Road Accident Fund (RAF) is determined to uncover fraudulent claims.
This comes as they have made a whooping bust of more than R2 billion fraudulent claims.
According to the fund, about R2 605 641 281,07 has been fraudulently paid over in the last three financial years.
These successes were possible through the efforts of RAF’s Forensic Investigation Department in partnership with various law enforcement agencies.
According to the fund, their fight against corruption happened both internally and externally, ultimately leading to arrests and prosecutions.
“A total of 713 claims were repudiated in 2022/2023, 448 in 2021/22, and 4 172 in 2020/21.
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“In the past three financial years, there has been a total of 32 arrests: 15 in 2022/23, 12 in 2021/22, and five in 2020/2021. The highest sentence over this period was a 12-year direct imprisonment of an attorney,” RAF said.
The fund said some of these perpetrators include various perpetrators including doctors, attorneys, RAF employees, road accident victims, and employees of corporate companies who have access to road crash information.
RAF said: “The types of crimes committed against the RAF include the submission of fraudulent claims, solicitation of funds from RAF claimants for work conducted to assist with a claim, and theft of claimants’ funds.
“Internally, investigations led to the suspension of seven staff members between 2020/21 and 2022/23. Six employees resigned during further probes or hearings from 2020/21 to 2022/23. Hundreds of cases were referred to the South African Police Services (SAPS) following preliminary investigations. In 2022/23, 449 cases were referred to the SAPS, 270 in 2021/2022, and 172 in 2020/21.”
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RAF chief executive officer Collins Letsoalo said the fund remains alert and investigates each case as it arises.
“Fraud continues to represent a significant risk to the RAF’s assets, service delivery, efficiency, and reputation. It robs claimants and dependents of the deceased of their livelihood. It also creates a negative impact on the socio-economic status of the country," Letsoalo said.
