Official reply: December 2009
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION 2281
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
Date of publication on internal question paper: 13 November 2009
Internal question paper no:
Mrs S P Kopane (DA) to ask the Minister of Social Development.
(1) Whether she has taken or will be taking any steps to ensure that (a)
the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) awards the right
social grants to the right person and (b) wasteful expenditure is
eliminated within SASSA; if not, why not; if so, what steps in each
case;
(2) whether she has implemented or will be implementing any steps to
ensure that (a) fraud is minimised and (b) money is being recovered;
if not, why not; if so, what steps?
NW2994E
REPLY:
(1)(a) Yes, steps are taken to ensure that the right grant is paid to
the right person. The pilot project for the Improved Grant
Application Process (IGAP) which is currently launched in the Free
State, aims to reduce turn around times for grant applications without
compromising process controls. The grant application process has been
streamlined adding value to clients contributing to service delivery
improvement in general and equally ensuring compliance with
legislation. The project yielded positive results, improving the
quality and ability to track applications. In addition, grant reviews
are being prioritised, to ensure that beneficiaries continue to
qualify for the grant they are receiving.
(b) The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SASSA appointed the Financial
Misconduct Board in accordance to Section 81 of the Public Finance
Management Act, 1999 (PFMA), whose responsibility is to investigate,
deliberate and make recommendations on corrective action against
employees who were found to have violated all provisions of the PFMA.
(2) (a) SASSA continues to work with the Department of Home Affairs and the
Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to ensure early detection and
investigation of fraudulent grants as well as prosecution of
perpetrators. In addition, a number of internal initiatives to
combat fraud are being implemented, namely: the Fraud Prevention
Strategy, Risk Management Framework and Risk Register, as well as the
Code of Conduct and Ethics. Going forward, SASSA intends to implement
a more proactive strategy to minimize fraud and error. This includes
the implementation of the integrity model, which will focus on
verifying high risk benefits before the grant is paid. This will
prevent the capturing and payment of fraudulent grants, thereby
minimizing the need to investigate. The model also seeks to change the
attitude of employees towards their work through the introduction of
strict measures to deal with neglect of duty and/ or error. The
implementation of the model, unfortunately, requires the appointment
of a number of integrity officers, which is currently unaffordable due
to budgetary constraints.
(b) The SIU continues to ensure that people, who received social grants
illegally, sign an acknowledgement of debts (AOD) and recover the
fraudulent grants. In addition to the AODs, SASSA engaged the services
of the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) to recover the fraudulent paid
grants from the dormant bank accounts. Good progress has been made in
this regards despite the lengthy legal process that are required.