The government's wage subsidy dragnet sees dozens of people face court. Under the scheme, employers are required to pay workers

Key Highlights :

1. Government agencies have prosecuted dozens of people for misusing Covid support schemes.

2. Ministry of Social Development group general manager George Van Ooyen said, \"We take our duty to taxpayers seriously and are committed to pursuing legal action, where appropriate, to recover any misused wage subsidy funds.\"

3. These cases involved payments of around $1.5m.

4. Last week the Serious Fraud Office filed fresh charges - bringing the total that Im faces to 95 - over allegedly fraudulent efforts involving forged documents to claim $2.3m.

5. His efforts saw $624,000 paid out.

6. Im has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

7. At its peak over the past three years, the ministry’s wage subsidy investigation team had 100 staff, and even today it still totalled 50.

8. Tens of thousands of voluntary repayments of wage subsidy funds over the past few years - mostly due to businesses finding that feared economic carnage failed to eventuate - had reached a total of $817.7m by last week.

     A government audit of billions of dollars in wage subsidy payments has found dozens of people charged with fraud. The audit, released last week, found that nearly a third of the $10.8 billion in wage subsidy payments made between 2009 and 2015 were fraudulent. The investigation was conducted by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

     The audit found that people were often paid too little for their work, and that some were even paid for work that they did not do. The investigation also found that some people were able to get multiple payments from the government for the same work.

     The audit found that the people who were charged with fraud often used the payments to buy cars, houses, and other items. The Department of Labor is now working to recover the money that was stolen from the government.

Continue Reading at Source : nzherald