Part of the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) savings was consumed by fraudulent withdrawals at a regional office in Mumbai, by officials of the Employee Provident Fund (EPFO). ) acted unfairly.
On Wednesday, Rs 37 of those withdrawals, most of which are known to require partial withdrawals from the EPF, were revealed, according to sources familiar with developments.
To date, four officials have been suspended and an EPFO audit team has been dispatched to review transaction records at the EPF regional office in Kandivali. EPFO confirmed that administrative and criminal measures had been taken in this case, as well as an effort to recover the funds.
A source close to the development said the fraud also involved preparing fraudulent claims against EPF accounts that had not been re-assessed for a long time. This could be because the employee went abroad or changed jobs without consolidating their EPF accounts.
“About 25% and 30% of the balances of the relevant accounts have been withdrawn and transferred to the NEFT banking system. This was facilitated by junior and front office staff, including social security officers, acting in concert to process withdrawal requests,” the person explained.
The EPF offices in the Mumbai area tightened the opt-out process, citing these instances of fraud and providing advice to avoid further errors in complaint handling, while the same approach could have been replicated in other PF offices.