The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has recovered R318 million from different law firms across South Africa, after the Road Accident Fund was defrauded of the money.
The money was fleeced through duplicate payments made to the law firms, erroneously as duplicate payments by the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
IOL reported earlier this month that RAF is facing a serious crisis with the escalating number of road accident claims far exceeding its ability to pay into the foreseeable future.
On Tuesday, spokesperson for the SIU, Kaizer Kganyago told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika while law firms were scheduled to receive approved payments from RAF, the same law firms also approached the courts and took the money directly from RAF bank accounts. However, the RAF system still paid them the same amounts at the scheduled time - duplicating the payments.
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“Because RAF does not have money, it has a system which says any claim that is approved, it has to wait 180 days before the payments can be made. Therefore, the system waits for 180 days so that they can rationalise the payment.
“The law firms do not want to wait for 180 days, so they then go, work with the sheriffs and then they serve on the bank account of RAF. They then use the courts to say we want to take the money out ourselves from the bank accounts (of RAF). The courts will approve that, they get the money, said Kganyago.
After receiving the money directly from the banks - through the court orders, in the scheduled 180 days, the RAF system still pays the law firms the same amount as a duplicate payment in spite of the initial payments.
“They just keep that money and go on with their lives,” said Kganyago.
He said besides keeping the duplicate payments, some of the law firms have been found to have already misappropriated the money.
“Remember, this money is put in trust with them. It is meant for the third party who is the claimant. In such cases, we have referred such cases to the National Prosecuting Authority which is now working with the Hawks, and the Hawks have already finalised their investigations around those,” said Kganyago.
The Hawks have referred the finalised investigations to the National Prosecuting Authority for decisions.
The SIU said there is intention to “deal with them criminally”.
For the companies which have kept the duplicate payments safely, Kganyago said the SIU just wants the law firms to return the duplicate amounts to the RAF, and the initial payments are channeled to the road accident victims.
The SIU said it has not established any connivance between RAF officials and the law firms.