LETTER: Civil society must come forward with complaints about Compensation Fund regulations

Business Day has reported over many years on the dysfunctionality of the Compensation Fund. The fund has over R80bn in assets and reserves, and receives a further R9bn annually from employers. For over 10 years the auditor-general has published disclaimers and adverse opinions about the fund. The various bodies representing civil society that deal with the Compensation Fund have been enormously concerned about the lack of service delivery over the past decade.

Over the past seven years I have personally been addressing hundreds of problems arising out of the dysfunctionality of the fund, with both the Compensation Fund commissioner and the responsible minister. All to no avail. Eventually the standing committee on public accounts stated that the Compensation Fund was in “absolute chaos”.

After hearing this the minister stated that he would appoint forensic auditors by the end of June this year to try to resolve the rot at the fund. At the beginning of the year he tried to include an unconstitutional clause in an amendment bill to the Compensation Fund. This clause was to try to prevent medical service providers from ceding their claims to third party prefunders for payment by the fund. This lead to a challenge at the parliamentary portfolio committee on labour, and the offending clause was removed.

It was put to the minister that one should only try to amend legislation if the amendment would effectively improve the legislation and service delivery. All this amendment was going to do was stop third parties from trying to overcome the dysfunctionality of the Compensation Fund to ensure the medical profession would be able to be paid, and in turn service the employees who required medical help.

Without the aid of third-party prefunders the medical profession were not getting paid and were reluctant to see injured employees. Despite the removal of the amendment the Compensation Fund commissioner immediately published regulations that bypassed the removal and embedded the prevention once again. After civil society raised a further complaint, the commissioner removed the offending regulations to avoid any further challenge, but they were republished on October 19, calling for a 60-day period of public comment.

It is duplicitous that this regulation has again been published. It is important for civil society and in particular anyone representing the medical professions or injured employees to come forward and send in their complaints with regard to the published regulations of the Compensation Fund.

Michael Bagraim, MP, DA shadow deputy employment & labour minister

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