343 Mr H B Groenewald (DA-NW) to ask the Minister of Labour:
What mechanisms have been put in place to ensure that the Compensation
Fund will not receive another qualified audit? CW445E
Minister Replies
The primary basis for the qualified opinion in 2010/11 related to the
systems and processes around Assessment Revenues and Receivables not
being adequate to ensure that all employers are correctly assessed and
billed. A similar comment has been raised for the Interest and
penalties levied on employers for late submission and payments.
The corrective actions put in place include:
⢠The appointment of key managers
⢠Implementation of an online Registration and automatic
assessment to enable employers to obtain timeous assessments has
been implemented as 8th May 2012 and we will have to monitor its
impact.
⢠A need which will have to be negotiated for the Integration of
the Fund database together with those of UIF, SARS and CIPC to
ensure that unregistered employers are identified and followed
up.
⢠A project has been put in place to scan all returns not yet
assessed. A computer program is in the process of being designed
to enable the input of the relevant data and automatic
assessment then raised to facilitate the reduction of the
backlog of assessments raised.
⢠A new financial system has been introduced during 2012 to assist
with the proper recording of all revenue as well as the
calculation of interest and penalties. These are expected to be
fully implemented during the 2012/2013 financial year.
Due to the extremely large scope of the corrective actions and the
significance of the projects, these will take a long period of time to
implement fully. It is expected that there will still be a qualified audit
opinion in the 2011/12 financial year, which should improve in the 2012/13
financial year to a non-qualified opinion.
With respect to the other matters making up the qualified opinion in the
previous years, the Fund has brought in additional skilled resources in
April 2012 to put in place the appropriate structures, systems and
processes to ensure the issues raised are corrected and not repeated.