Contract end haunts RAF

PAYOUTS: EXCESS AMOUNTS PAID DUE TO DEFAULT JUDGMENTS AND INFLATED CLAIMS

- Roy Cokayne

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) paid an estimated R22.8 billion in excess payments in just two financial years due to default judgments and inflated claims settlements because of the fund's decision to terminate the contract with its panel of attorneys.

Itayi Charakupa, senior manager of the fund's actuarial unit from September 2018 to 2023, said they estimated the cost of these excess payments at R14 billion and R17.6 billion in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years (a total of R31.6 billion).

Charakupa, speaking on Wednesday during the inquiry into the RAF by parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), contrasted this figure with the R5.8 billion in the RAF's legal costs between its 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years.

Scopa member Patrick Atkinson of the DA said the estimated excess payments by the RAF were only for two years and "the number could be considerably higher if you take it to today's date".

'Change in accounting policy'