Home Affairs Under Fire for R140-Million SASSA Mistake – Agency Speaks Out!

A shocking financial mishap involving R140 million has put South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs under scrutiny, with accusations that it played a role in a massive error within the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). The controversy has sparked widespread concern over financial mismanagement and accountability within the country’s social grant system.

SASSA Blunder Revealed

The problem was disclosed last week at the 2023/24 audit action plan presentation to the Parliamentary portfolio committee on social development.

The then-SASSA CEO, Busisiwe Mamela, who has since been suspended until the investigation is over, was the one in control at the time. The CFO of the agency, Tsakeriwa Chauke, was forced to account for the serious financial error at the meeting.

R140-Million Loss Explained

The main cause for this error is the timing of payment processing. Every month, SASSA creates payment files for social grants from the Social Pension (SOCPEN) database.

In the event that a beneficiary dies between the date of file generation and payment date, they would still be paid, although they are no longer alive. This happened 75,000 times, which amounted to R140 million in taxpayer money over one year.

In an interesting twist, South Africa experienced 630,667 fatalities in 2022, as reported by Stats SA. That equates to around 52,555 fatalities per month. With 45% of South Africans getting some kind of social grant, such as SRD or core SASSA grants, just 25,277 fatalities per month would be needed to counter the amounts from the grants, indicating a stark disparity.

A New System to Avoid More Mistakes

To address this persistent problem, CFO Tsakeriwa Chauke said a new IT system would be piloted in April. The system is designed to address the problem by allowing bulk recall of payments to deceased beneficiaries using the death records of the DHA.

Although SASSA is aligned with the DHA, the system has one major weakness: numerous citizens do not report the death of a beneficiary. Therefore, SASSA keeps making payments until the beneficiary does not collect their grant for three consecutive months.

Despite the issues, SASSA has made strides in eliminating irregular expenses. The report reported a reduction in such expenses as a whole. For example, in 2018/19, the agency had an unthinkable R1.8 billion misappropriation, while in 2023/24 the amount was down to a mere R34.2 million. Chauke attributed the decline to the enhanced control and supply chain management training.

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Significant Irregularities in SASSA’s Financial Reports

Though progress was noted, SASSA’s audit report also flagged material irregularities such as:

Plans to Counteract Fraud and Enhance Service

To meet the issue of fraud, interim CEO Temba Matlou indicated that biometric verification would be rolled out to all SRD grant recipients in the following financial year. Moreover, SASSA is recalibrating the rate-limiting ability of the system to minimize how many times the system may be queried so that fraudulent transactions can be halted.

In spite of this, there continue to be problems, including lengthy queues at SASSA offices and a shortage of staff. SASSA is currently employing more staff to address this issue.

Matlou also highlighted the role of online applications, which are being encouraged to make it easier for the beneficiaries, particularly when the queues offline become unmanageable. The SASSA error, which overspent R140 million on overpaying dead payees, indicates major flaws in the social security system.

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While the organization is making an attempt to streamline its fee manner and anti-fraud measures, as an instance, with the aid of introducing biometric authentication and piloting a new IT device, troubles like low team of workers stages and long queues nonetheless bedevil its operations.

The recent audit famous enhancements within the financial management of the organisation, however in addition efforts are necessary to make certain that such highly-priced errors will not be repeated.

Final Thought

The ongoing dispute among SASSA and Home Affairs highlights extreme flaws in South Africa’s social safety administration. With billions of rands allocated to social offers yearly, making sure data accuracy, transparency, and accountability is vital to stopping destiny financial mismanagement. Whether Home Affairs is ultimately determined complicit or no longer, this scandal underscores the urgent need for better oversight and coordination between authorities departments dealing with public finances.

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