The number of companies which are approved for the Wage Subsidy Programme (PSU) had been on a decline since March last year.
According to Harian Metro, the Perlis Social Security Organisation (Socso) Director, Basharudin Khalid said they had imposed stricter conditions on businesses so as to avoid businesses from making illicit claims through the PSU programme.
“For PSU 4.0, out of 258 applications from companies involving 2,639 employees in the state, we only approved 32 companies for 278 employees with a total claim of RM166,800.”
“As compared to PSU 3.0 which started in January 2021, we received a total of 776 applications involving 6,885 employees, but only 642 company applications involving 5,491 employees were approved.”
“This application was rejected not only because of attempted fraud by the employer, but there were also businesses who did not meet the conditions and criteria.” he said.
Basharudin said this in a press conference after attending the 50th Golden Jubilee Day Celebration of Socso 2021 at the Perlis yesterday (22 October).
Also present were the Perlis State Exco for Education, Human Resource Development, Science, Technology and Innovation, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Rozieana Ahmad and Perlis Socso Deputy Director, Balkis Abd Rahman.
Meanwhile, Basharudin also explained that business owners are coming up with various strategies to submit fraudulent claims. Among which were by submitting names of employees who did not qualify for the PSU, and demanding subsidies for staff who had been retrenched.
“In fact, some companies are found to have not paid their employees despite receiving this subsidy, while some uses ‘shell companies’ to deceive Socso.”
“However, we have the means and mechanisms to scrutinize the company as well as detect the possibility of this fraud.” he said.
He said companies or employers registered in Perlis were encouraged to continue to apply for the PSU programme for the survival of companies and their employees in these difficult times.
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