Several crores of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) financial savings have been drained out by way of fraudulent withdrawals at a regional workplace in Mumbai, because of officers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) appearing in connivance.
By Wednesday, Rs 37 crore of such withdrawals, most of which are learnt to have been partial withdrawal claims from EPF, had come to light , as per sources aware of the development.
Four officers have been suspended up to now and an audit group of the EPFO has been dispatched to scrutinise transaction data at the regional EPF workplace in Kandivali. EPFO has confirmed that administrative and criminal action has been launched in the matter, together with efforts to recover the funds.
A source close to the development said the fraud also involved preparing fake claims requests against EPF accounts where no fresh contributions have been made for a prolonged period, possibly because the employee had gone abroad or changed jobs without consolidating their EPF accounts.
supply near the event stated the fraud additionally concerned getting ready faux declare requests in opposition to EPF accounts the place no recent contributions have been made for a chronic interval, presumably as a result of the worker had gone overseas or modified jobs with out consolidating their EPF accounts.
“About 25%-30% of the balances in the affected accounts were withdrawn and transferred out through the NEFT banking system. This was facilitated by junior and clerical level officers, including social security assistants, acting in concert to process the withdrawal claims,”
EPF workplaces within the Mumbai area have tightened withdrawal processes, citing these fraud instances and issued an advisory to keep away from recent malfeasance within the settlement of claims, amid considerations that the identical modus operandi might have been replicated in different PF workplaces.
‘Balances safe’
Responding to The Hindu’s detailed queries on the matter, Central PF Commissioner Sunil Barthwal’s workplace conceded an inside probe has discovered balances have been withdrawn from ‘non-existent accounts’, stressing that ‘the EPF balance in the account of any member is not fraudulently withdrawn and balances of EPF members are safe’.
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