Of the total complaints, 155 were on false claims and misuse of the WSP, says HR deputy minister

pic by TMR FILE

THE Social Security Organisation (Socso) received 345 complaints made towards employers in terms of payments under the Wage Subsidy Programme (WSP) as of Oct 30.

Deputy Human Resource (HR) Minister Awang Hashim said the complaints involved payments amounting to RM19.99 million.

“Of the total complaints, 155 were on false claims and misuse of the WSP. Socso has identified these complaints to claim payments from the employers,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

He was responding to a question from Datuk Mahfuz Omar (Pakatan Harapan-Pokok Sena) who wanted the ministry to state the number of employers identified for false claims under the programme and its value.

Awang said Socso will temporarily suspend payments to the employers involved in the false claims until investigations on the complaints are completed.

He said 190 complaints are still being investigated and Socso is in the middle of obtaining information from those who filed the complaints.

“If the employers are found to have made false claims, they can be charged under Section 415 and Section 471 of the Penal Code.

“Socso is working together with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and several cases are still under investigation.

“They will continue sharing information with MACC to ensure investigations can be done to employers who failed to comply with the terms under WSP,” he said.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said a total of 322,000 employees and more than 2.6 million workers have benefitted from the programme.

The programme had also approved wage subsidy totalling to RM11.9 billion as of Oct 23.

The government announced WSP and WSP 2.0 as financial assistance for employers affected by Covid-19 to resume business operations and a measure to retain workers.

Almost RM18 billion is prepared for both programmes.