By: Natasha Archary
Road Accident Fund (RAF) spokesperson McIntosh Polela shares with Gugulethu Mfuphi on Kaya Biz that there has been great strides made to clamp down on fraudulent claims of over R2.6 billion over the past 3-years.
Polela says they have introduced a number of mechanisms to ensure that those who defraud the fund are punished and this includes the fully automated system which allows the RAF to track the hands that these documents go through.
“One of the things we’ve done is put in place auditing processes wth the fund’s Forensic Investigation Department which investigates every claim to make sure they are legitimate and to make sure that payments are made to claims that are legitimate.
Any claims that are fraudulent, we’re able to stop it before any money is paid.
Beefing up our internal investigations unit has been responsible for helping us to clamp down on fraudulent claims.”
Polela says there have been doctors, lawyers, victims, and RAF employees who have been implicated in some fraudulent claims, and there is no leniency, and 22 people have been prosecuted.
Over 700 claims were rejected by the RAF in the 2022/23 financial year, 448 in 2021/22 and 4 172 in 2020/21.
Polela says there was a time when RAF used to pay out up R10 billion in claims to lawyers which was reduced to R3.7 billion and says there are efforts to reduce this even further.
According to Polela, lawyers delay the process of victims receiving an offer which is valid for 120-days to the point that claims reach courts.
He says lawyers do this in order for them to get paid out for administrative costs and legal fees.
