A TOTAL of $5.4 million unidentified contributions was collected but not distributed to member accounts because of insufficient information supplied by employers.
This was revealed by Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) chief executive officer Jaoji Koroi as he addressed the fund’s members during a public forum in Suva on Tuesday night.
Mr Koroi said this was a decrease of 51.8 per cent when compared with last year’s balance of $8.2m.
“The fund continues to emphasise the importance of employers’ registering their employees within the first month of their employment and providing accurate details of their workers,” Mr Koroi said.
Mr Koroi also said that in 2017, the fund transferred a total of $1.4m of unidentified contributions to the Unclaimed Deposits Account (UDA) after reasonable due diligence.
He further stated that a further $0.8m was also transferred to UDA for members over 65 years whose accounts have been dormant for the past 10 years.
Mr Koroi also told members that a total of 52 employers’ cases were registered in the criminal jurisdiction with magistrates courts around Fiji during the year and the total debt for all prosecution cases in court amounted to $1.34m.
He said cases prosecuted were initiated based on the following offences with penalties prescribed under the FNPF Act, 2011: a) Failing to pay contributions for workers; b) Failing to produce documents on demand; c) Giving false or misleading statements to FNPF; and d) Deduction of 8 per cent from workers without remittance to FNPF.
Mr Koroi also told members that at the close of the year, 74 court cases that included some new cases were completed and this enabled the recovery of $1.7m in outstanding contributions.
He said in addition to its powers of enforcement, the Fund also actively pursues civil recovery against directors and business owners.
Mr Koroi said a total of 17 cases have been initiated against company directors and business owners amounting to about $450,000 for unpaid contributions.
