Beefing up PenjanaKerjaya

PETALING JAYA: Existing parameters and criteria for the PenjanaKerjaya programme will be tightened to prevent any further instances of scams or abuse, says the Social Security Organisation (Socso).

It said the measures, including analysing employers applications for workers, would be done to ensure only eligible employers would obtain approvals for the programme.

“An analysis will also be done if an employer’s application (for workers) exceeds the limits of the PenjanaKerjaya programme.

“Other parameters that will be looked at include applications that do not tally with the size of the industry, applications that are not aligned with needs of the industry, as well as applications that are unsuitable with the background of the applying company,” it said in a statement.

PenjanaKerjaya – a programme under the National Economic Recovery Plan – was launched in 2020, offering financial incentives of between RM600 and RM1,000 to employers for each employee or apprentice employed for up to six months.

Socso said training programmes and trainers under PenjanaKerjaya would also be monitored to ensure the training was accurate to job scopes (under the programme), and did not differ with the background of the company.

It also confirmed the arrests and charges by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption (MACC) in relation to “Ops Hire” operations, adding that more charges would be pressed by the MACC soon.

“Ops Hire” is a collaboration between the MACC and Socso to look into claims of leakages and abuse of public funds.

“At the same time, Socso saved as much as RM426mil worth of false claims through checks and its own internal investigations.

“Both Socso and the MACC will also track down employers who make false claims under the programme for further action,” Socso said.

On Jan 20, the MACC said lax conditions set by the government had allowed those applying for funds under PenjanaKerjaya to cheat their way into getting hold of the funds.

MACC senior director of investigation Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim said probes found that individuals named as employees of companies submitting the claims could not be verified nor could the training programmes, said to be held, be proven.

“Our findings revealed that suspects identified under Ops Hire had taken advantage of the lenient conditions and used false information to apply for the funds,” he said.

Hishamuddin said Ops Hire saw 74 individuals arrested, 61 companies investigated and the amount of money involved in this crime amounted to RM87,980,757.29.

As of Jan 19, a total of 27 individuals had been charged in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Melaka over making false claims totalling RM4,927,440.00.