Employers ordered to submit SDs to prevent wage incentive fraud

 

Human resources minister M Saravanan says stricter action will be taken against employers if they are found to be lying in their SDs.

KUALA LUMPUR: Companies or employers applying for the wage incentive programme will not have to submit a statutory declaration (SD) to prevent misuse of the funds under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).

Human resources minister M Saravanan said the additional condition for the applications in the programme managed by the Social Security Organisation (Socso), was imposed to prevent employers from making false claims.

Recently, there have been complaints about companies claiming the incentives from Socso using the names of “workers” who were never on their payroll. The scam was discovered when some jobless people checked their Socso status.

“Employers must submit an SD stating the total number of their employees and stricter action will be taken against them if they are found to be lying in their SDs,” he told a virtual press conference here today.

Saravanan said that as of yesterday, Socso has received 1,758 complaints regarding suspicious payment of the incentives.

Of that total he said, 1,231 cases were found to be baseless, 340 were suspected to be fraudulent claims, while 187 were still under investigation.

Meanwhile, he said the Socso’s anti-fraud unit and Ethics and Compliance branch were currently investigating a report over the existence of a syndicate involving a company that was allegedly falsifying employment data to apply for the PenjanaKerjaya 2.0 incentives.

Saravanan said the case would also be referred to the police or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, if necessary.

As such, he reminded all job seekers not to share their personal information on social media.

Complaints or enquiries regarding the Penjana incentives can be made by sending an email to penjanakerjaya@perkeso.gov.my or contacting Socso’s Customer Service Hotline at 1-300-22-8000 or 03-80915300. - FMT