More arrests to come over false Socso claims under Penjana Kerjaya

 

Socso advised employers and training providers who had made false claims under Penjana Kerjaya to return the incentive funds to avoid facing legal action.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is expected to arrest more employers for allegedly making false claims under the Employment Incentive Programme (Penjana Kerjaya).

Social Security Organisation (Socso) CEO Azman Aziz said the arrests by MACC yesterday was a continuation of the strategic collaboration between Socso and MACC through Ops Hire, which was first carried out in July last year.

“This is an ongoing effort to track down irresponsible parties and it is learned that more arrests will be made,” he said in a statement.

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Azman added that Ops Hire will be extended to Sabah and Sarawak.

“Ops Hire and Ops Hire 2.0 are integrated operations conducted by Socso and MACC to address embezzlement of government funds. To date, Ops Hire has saved more than RM500 million in Penjana Kerjaya incentive funds from misuse by employers,” he said.

Azman said Socso had also strengthened its internal systems, processes and governance as well as tightened the control of existing procedures to ensure that only qualified applicants received the incentives.

“Socso also suspends payments to those suspected of making false claims based on data analysis and monitoring. Lawsuits are filed against the parties involved to recover the misused funds,” he said.

He advised employers and training providers who had made false claims under Penjana Kerjaya to return the incentive funds to avoid facing legal action.

Yesterday, the MACC arrested four individuals on suspicion of submitting employee verification forms to Socso under Penjana 2.0 that contained false information. - FMT