Compensation Fund: 12 Consecutive Audit Disclaimers, R485m Irregular in One Year, Payments Diverted to Altered Bank Accounts

R485 million (irregular expenditure 2023/24 alone; R652m fruitless; AGSA)

documented loss

The Compensation Fund, which pays for injured workers' treatment and compensation, has received a disclaimer audit opinion every year since 2012/13. The Auditor-General told Scopa in February 2025 that in 2023/24 alone irregular expenditure was R485 million and fruitless expenditure R652 million; that bank details were being altered mid-payment, multiple accounts registered against a single provider identity and audit logs disabled; and that medical providers now refuse injured workers because claims take up to three years. Five material irregularities are open; a 2014 SIU proclamation produced no visible outcome.

The Record The Evidence What Was Lost Implicated Institutions The Paper Trail

The Record

Every employer in the country pays levies to the Compensation Fund so that a worker injured on the job is treated and compensated. The fund has not been able to produce auditable financial statements for twelve years. Its audit opinion has been a disclaimer — the Auditor-General's lowest — every year since 2012/13.

On 5 February 2025 the Auditor-General's Bulelwa Sikweyiya took Scopa through the 2023/24 outcome: irregular expenditure of R485 million and fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R652 million in the year, with unresolved balances of R467.7 million and R558 million respectively; bank details altered mid-payment; multiple bank accounts registered to a single provider identity; audit logs on the payment system disabled; management claims of "hacking" that the auditors could not verify; five material irregularities, one resolved; and a "high tolerance for non-compliance without consequence management". The practical effect: medical providers refuse to treat injured workers because claims take up to three years to pay. The SIU was given a proclamation in 2014 and delivered a final report in February 2021; no outcome has been published. The fund sits beside the UIF-TERS file as the second Department of Employment and Labour fund in this archive.