The following content was published in Newsflash 2022/52 – UIF NOTICE: APPROVED AUDITORS APPOINTED BY UIF FOR TERS AUDIT

On 8 December 2022, the UIF Commissioner signed a notice containing a list of auditing firms that have been approved by the Fund and mandated to audit employers for compliance with the TERS benefit requirements.

The following are the approved firms that will be contacting selected employers to arrange for information gathering:

1. The Accounting Village (Pty) Ltd;
2. NKS Chartered Accountants;
3. Inqaba Kadiya Consulting (Pty) Ltd;
4. Leolo and Partners Chartered Accountants;
5. Morobi Chartered Accountants;
6. Ndemex Business Solution; and
7. Ligwa Advisory Services.

If an employer receives a request from one of these firms, it is legitimate and must be complied with.

The full UIF Notice follows on the next page of this Newsflash, and on the page that follows, is an example of the information that employers / payroll systems must make available for the verification.

POST VERIFICATION AUDIT TO BE CONDUCTED ON ALL EMPLOYERS

Dear Employers.

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) would like to take this opportunity to inform all Employers and Bargaining Councils, who were paid under the COVID-19 TERS benefit, of the upcoming post-verification exercise to be conducted by the following audit firms who are duly appointed by UIF:

The Accounting Village (Pty) Ltd;
NKS Chartered Accountants;
Inqaba Kadiya Consulting (Pty) Ltd:
Leolo and Partners Chartered Accountants;
Morobi Chartered Accountants;
Ndemex Business Solution; and
Ligwa Advisory Services

The post verification exercise cornmenced during October 2022 and shall endure for a period of twelve (12) months,

The various Memorandum Of Agreements entered into between UIF and the employers. empowered the UIF to audit employers at any given time by an appointed auditor and lor internal verification team. The UIF is now accordingly invoking these provisions

The audit will be conducted at the premises Of the ernployers for verification purpose. In preparing for the audit. please make the following minimum information available:

Bank statements (showing all COVID-19 TERS enefits received to date from UIF and funds paid to employees by the employer);
Payroll reports (Periods January 2020 to June 2021 );
Contracts of employment;
Reconciliation of COVID-19 TERS funds (Total COVID-19 TERS funds received from I-JIF against or a comparison to COVID-19 TERS benefits paid to employees.

We humbly request the employers to cooperate with the above appointed service providers and provide them with access to information and personnel where needed

The Unemployment Insurance Fund is POPIA compliant and has signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) With all the firms, UIF will ensure that the information obtained will be process for the audit purpose only. All due diligence processes were conducted on all audit firms. It should be noted that further information may be required during the audit process.

EXTRACT OF THE REQUEST BY THE APPROVED AUDIT FIRMS

We wish to notify you that our firm has been requested by the UIF to conduct a post verification exercise on your firm and would accordingly require access to various documentation to complete this exercise.

5. We accordingly request that we be provided with the following information within three (3) working days following receipt of this letter:
5.1 Bank statements, showing all COVID19TERS funds received to date from the UIF and money paid to employees by the employer;
5.2 Payroll reports (January 2020 to the last month of application);
5.3 Signed Memorandum of Agreement (“MoA”) with the UIF;
5.4 Reconciliation of COVID19TERS funds (total COVID19TERS funds received from the UIF against or a comparison to funds paid to employees);
5.5 A bank confirmation letter submitted to the UIF initially with the claims applications;
5.6 Communication letter/email sent to staff relating to the temporary closure of the business indicating the periods that the UIF claims were applied for;
5.7 Proof of payment of COVID19TERS funds to employees;
5.8 Proof of any refunds made by your firm to UIF; and
5.9 A schedule of forced leave days for employees listed in your COVID19TERS benefit application/s.

6. We will in due course provide you with a sample list of employees for which we will require the following further information:
6.1 Contracts of employment or appointment letters;
6.2 Payslips from January 2020 to the last month of your benefit application/s;
6.3 Clocking reports or attendance registers pertaining to the lockdown period applied for;
6.4 IRP5’s for 2021 and 2022;
6.5 Salary increase letters, where applicable; and
6.6 Termination letters, where applicable; and
6.7 Any other documentation or records deemed appropriate to fulfilling the post-verification exercise.

7. Our above request is in no manner exhaustive and should further documentation and/or records be required to fulfil the post-verification exercise, we trust that you will provide same.

Your assistance in this post-verification exercise is appreciated.