The Registrar of Pension Funds is to clampdown on pension funds that fail to submit annual financial statements on time.
From next month, Jeff van Rooyen, the registrar, will enforce penalties on funds that are lax in meeting their annual deadlines. The aim is to ensure that fund members do not bear the brunt of fines, as is currently the case.
Dube Tshidi, the deputy executive officer of pensions at the Financial Services Board, says there is a "strong intention" to penalise the culprits, be it administrators, auditors or trustees responsible for pension funds not handing in financial returns on time.
Tshidi intends introducing amendments to the Pension Funds Act later this year.
Penalties levied against defaulting pension funds for the late submission of annual financial returns affect ordinary members of the fund.
Instead of accruing interest, pension fund money is used to pay fines, which amount to R50 a day for every day a fund defaults.
The registrar's latest annual report shows that 191 self-administered pension funds failed to submit annual financial returns by the cut-off date for the 2000 Registrar of Pension Funds annual report.
Tshidi says every case is different, with past investigations revealing maladministration of funds and employers who fail to pay contributions into the funds.
The registrar will also more closely scrutinise umbrella schemes, due to perceptions that the system has been abused in the past. Umbrella funds are designed to cater for small funds created by not-so-big employers.