Gweru City Council workers has asked all its workers to join one medical aid service provider to avoid cases where unscrupulous employees made false medical claims from the local authority using fake receipts.
by Stephen Chadenga
Town clerk, Elizabeth Gwatipedza, said, over the years, council was losing money to workers, who used fake receipts to claim medical aid benefits from the local authority.
“We have plans that council workers join one medical aid to avoid a situation where employees were coming with fake receipts and fake prescriptions to claim money for medical aid,” she said in an interview last week.
An audit carried at the municipality last November unearthed cases where some workers claimed money for non-existent medical services. Since 2014, council’s medical assistance has been on a cash basis to all medical card holders, a loophole which some employees allegedly took advantage of to make bogus claims.
“One employee (name supplied) collected $1 800 from the cash book office based on a receipt purported to be from a doctor (name supplied),” the audit revealed.
“When the internal audit team interviewed the said doctor, it emerged that the employee never got medical services from the doctor nor did she pay him $1 800. In fact she went on to admit that she had used the money for other purposes other than the intended medical assistance.”
The report further indicated that between January 2015 and 2016, several council workers used fake receipts to prejudice council of about $50 000.
