A food stall operator was shocked to learn recently that she had been declared dead and her Employees Provident Fund (EPF) account containing RM56,000 had been wiped clean a year ago.
Sarasvathi Chellayaya, 54, found out that a man who is unknown to her, had last year presented the EPF with a death certificate indicating she had died on May 9, 2008. He claimed the money as her next of kin on April 15 last year.
The "death" was however registered only on March 2, 2009, 10 months later.
"EPF told me the man had claimed to be my guardian and requested for my account to be cashed out," she told a press conference called by Subang Jaya assemblywoman Hannah Yeoh today.
When contacted, EPF public relations general manager Nik Affendi Jaafar said according to its records, Sarasvathi had named the man who had cashed out her money as her beneficiary.
"We conducted our checks before we handed out the money," he said, adding that EPF relied on only legitimate documentation to verify details upon withdrawal applications.
He said EPF will lodge a police report and consider reimbursement based on police investigations. He said that a check with the National Registration Department (NRD) confirmed that Sarasvathi was deceased.
Sarasvathi, however, said she had never named a beneficiary to her EPF account. She had discovered her account has zero balance when she checked her EPF balance in USJ1 on Dec 14.
"I had RM56,815.23 in my account and it is all gone,” said Sarasvathi.
She went to EPF headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut the next day and confirmed her account was empty. She then lodged a police report.
It is believed that the culprit had applied for a copy of Sarasvathi’s MyKad from the NRD and used that to submit a false benificiary nomination, naming himself as Sarasvathi’s beneficiary. He then presented the forged death certificate to make his fraudulent claim.
Sarasvathi’s daughter S. Thaveayogamalar, 27, who was present at the press conference criticised EPF for negligence. "How can they give away the money without checking this man’s identity properly?" she asked.
She said EPF had all the documents, including verification of death from a government hospital and police, but was reluctant to give these to her family and claimed them to be "private and confidential".
"They showed us the documents when we visited the office," she said.
Yeoh urged the authorities to quickly conclude their investigations and provide the findings to the family.
"There are so many governmental agencies involved like NRD, EPF, the police and the hospital. Something is not right somewhere," she said.
