Tamkeen intensifies efforts to monitor wage support applications
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com
To affirm its commitment to directing support to its beneficiaries, The Labour Fund “Tamkeen” continues its efforts to enhance its oversight procedures by implementing a comprehensive monitoring plan to unify all efforts and address any violations or suspicions related to its support programs. This includes increasing monitoring visits, strengthening legal frameworks, and coordinating with relevant authorities.
In line with this, Tamkeen has announced that it is intensifying its monitoring efforts to oversee wage support applications to enhance the support impact and minimize any potential misuse. In addition, several Tamkeen’s employees have recently been authorized as judicial officers as part of its efforts to enhance the legal frameworks and follow-up procedures and to work closely with other relevant authorities, which in turn, will take the necessary actions for detected cases.
Since the announcement of the new programs, “Tamkeen” has worked to establish new oversight standards suited to these programs. An improved monitoring plan has been implemented to double inspection efforts on enterprises and individuals, maintaining regular communication with beneficiaries, increasing coordination with the Ministry of Labour and relevant authorities to address suspected violations, and providing a whistleblowing hotline for affected individuals to report any suspicions.
In terms of proactive monitoring on wage support programs, a new mechanism has been developed that combines an advanced data science model with personal monitoring by the team through site visits. Additionally, the automated system has been updated with warning indicators to identify cases where violations are suspected, such as discrepancies in employee numbers or the size of the enterprise or its economic sector.
Additionally, there has been an increase in inspection visits to enterprises benefiting from wage support programs to detect cases of illegal employment or wage manipulation. Since the beginning of this year, over 2,450 inspection visits have been conducted to these enterprises, resulting in the discovery of 237 violations.
According to the violation regulations, the Labour Fund 'Tamkeen' has the right to reclaim the support funds or deny beneficiaries access to future support programs if the funds misuse has been proven in violation of the terms and conditions of the programs, in addition to referring them to relevant authorities to take the necessary actions in case of any criminal suspicion.
The team continues its visits to enterprises benefiting from enterprise support programs, particularly those receiving support for purchasing equipment. Payments are made only after verifying that the machinery and equipment were purchased according to the specifications mentioned in the support approval. Additionally, another visit is conducted to ensure the enterprises’ compliance with the contract terms.
“Tamkeen” has renewed its call for general public, both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of support programs, to report any violations or misconduct through designated channels. These include the dedicated whistleblowing hotline 17383383 or the email address report@tamkeen.bh.
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