The two-day seminar on municipal compliance with Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act came to an end with practical demonstrations on using the Fund’s systems.
The two-day seminar hosted by the Compensation Fund in partnership with the North West Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) which focused on municipalities’ compliance with COIDA ended today, 07/09/2022 with a practical demonstration on the technical aspects of using the Fund’s system.
The seminar attendees were taken through the CompEasy system that is being used for online submission of claims as well as submission of Return of Earnings. They were also taken through the query resolution and registration processes.
Presenting on query resolutions processes, Timothy Sekome Assistant Director: Customer Services said the Fund acknowledges delays in the slow turnaround in terms of finalisation of queries which is heightened mostly by non-submission of relevant documents by employers. He urged municipalities to provide relevant documents that include claim registration numbers to assist in the timeous resolution of queries.
“a query goes through different stages before it can be resolved, therefore, timeous submission of relevant source documents is important for us to meet the stipulated time frames,” said Sekome.
Through this seminar, it has since been noted that the North West municipalities were not doing well in terms of compliance as 20 out of 22 was found to have registered with the Fund however their compliance level was at 18%. The 18 % achieved was as a result of four (4) municipalities submitting their Return of Earnings for the previous financial circle, however, they are yet to pay for the amount invoiced.
This seminar is part of a series of engagements scheduled by CF, that would see different stakeholders throughout the country at both provincial and local government levels and Organised Labour respectively taken through the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) in an effort to increase compliance by both spheres of government.
The Compensation Fund is an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour and it exists to administer the COID Act. Its main objective is to provide compensation for disablement, illness and death resulting from occupational injuries and diseases.
This seminar was held under the theme: “Compensation Fund working with municipalities on COIDA to protect vulnerable works”. It was targeted at Municipality officials including Municipal Managers, Chief Financial Officers and officials responsible for Corporate Services and Human resources.
Source: Government of South Africa