PETALING JAYA: The Social Security Organisation (Socso) is calling on its members to contact it if they believe their personal information has been misused in any suspicious job applications in connection with its Hiring Incentive Programme (Penjana Kerjaya).
This follows Socso’s discovery of fraudulent claims involving employers and training providers to the tune of RM423 million.
Socso has since suspended payments for the programme. Its chief executive officer Datuk Seri Azman Aziz Mohammed told theSun the programme was meant to stimulate the hiring of local employees and increase their job opportunities.
Employers received subsidies of between RM600 and RM1,000 for up to 12 months upon joining the programme.
He said Socso had disbursed RM2.34 billion to 45,379 employers to hire 327,789 job seekers under the programme that was first launched in 2020.
“We are advising employers who had misappropriated the funds or submitted false claims to come forward and make voluntary repayments or contact Socso to resolve the problem before action is taken against them.”
Azman said the programme was suspended after data analysis and continuous monitoring by its Anti-Fraud, Ethics and Integrity Unit discovered the fraud.
Investigations into false claims were conducted in collaboration with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) after surveillance and intelligence conducted since May last year found that certain employers had made false claims and misappropriated the funds.
A source told theSun that Socso was alerted to the fraud by employees whose data was misused by some employers.
“When the employees told us (Socso) that they received an email about a job they did not accept, our Anti-Fraud, Ethics and Integrity Unit conducted investigations and we discovered many similar cases.”
The source also said that random checks were carried out regularly by the agency to identify similar incidents.
Meanwhile, MACC arrested three men, one in Johor and two in Penang yesterday to facilitate investigations into such frauds.
Among those held in Johor is a 41-year-old chief clerk who works at a government department. The suspect was arrested at the Johor MACC office at 7.45pm on Friday when he presented himself to record his statement.
Yesterday, theSun’s Charles Ramendran reported that the MACC made its latest arrests of a CEO and a director of a company for allegedly making false claims under the Penjana Kerjaya fund.
Sources revealed that the 41-year-old CEO and a 40-year-old female director were held at about 1.30pm on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur.
MACC obtained a four-day remand order on the CEO yesterday, while the female suspect was released on bail after her statement was recorded.
It is learnt that the two had allegedly submitted an invoice with false claims amounting to RM700,000 to Socso for a training programme that was not fully carried out.
MACC director of investigations Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim confirmed the arrests. He said more arrests might be carried out soon.
With the latest arrests, the total number of those nabbed in the joint operation between MACC and Socso totalled 42 people.
