Cape Town — The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has clamped down on fraud and corruption on foreign nationals as it tries to re-gather the costs of failed objectives.
A multi-disciplinary task team has been lookin gat the work of the department and looked for ways to tighten efficiency, and said human error in the processing of documents was a large area of concern, resulting in more fraud and corruption, The Citizen reported.
The task team looked at 25 functions of Home Affairs and three panelists gave their presentations to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. These included Warwick Meier, Rose Bishop and Ricky Singh.
Meier found that of 51 000 various types of applications that were initially rejected, with 11 000 subsequently approved in a follow-up application. Bishop said gross negligence was found and referred to the Hawks.
Singh looked at the legal processes of holding officials accountable, and noted a bargaining council loophole that had been exploited since 2003. He said the department was unable to appoint external chairpersons or any legal representatives.
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Singh said 10 cases were brought before the bragianing council and were able to challenge the 2004 ruling in the Labour Court. Singh said the labour court had recently ruled in the department’s favour.
This recently led to one individual being found guilty of 105 counts of gross misconduct involving the illegal registration of birth certificates and has been dismissed.
According to EWN, the investigations have found that several fradulent applications were processed during the night or over the weekends. Most of the applications were for worker, business and spusal permits.
Deputy Minister, Njabulo Nzuza, brought a team of hired forensic consultants to Parliament. Members of the team are tasked with anti-fraud and prevention strategies.
“They are not just there to deal with cleaning up the environment, but to set up systems that will enable us to make sure whatever would have happened in the past does not happen again.”
Study visas are also a major category for fraud.
Over 3 000 study visas have been converted to critical skills visas under a directive by former Minister Malusi Gigaba – before studies have even been completed.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
