Cape Town - Of the more than 200 SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) officials who fraudulently accessed the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants, only one has been dismissed and the majority are still employed, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu told MPs.
She said 221 officials were investigated for double dipping into the R350 grant funds. Of these, she said, 208 officials were still employed by Sassa.
Zulu was responding to questions by IFP MP Liezl van der Merwe, who had asked whether the Sassa employees had faced consequences for fraud and corruption relating to social grants.
Meant to mitigate the Covid-19-induced economic devastation, the SRD grant is implemented with the concurrence of the Treasury and, according to Sassa, is meant for SA citizens, refugees, asylum seekers and special permit holders aged between 18 and 60 who lack financial means, don’t receive social grants, and are ineligible for the Unemployment Insurance Fund payments. Government officials don’t meet the requirements.
Zulu said the officials’ alleged transgressions numbered 761 financial misconduct cases, which related to the failure by the affected officials to prevent the occurrence of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and damages and losses within Sassa.
She said 761 cases were committed by 221 officials and corrective disciplinary steps taken to date were:
● 48 officials were issued with written warnings.
● 14 officials were issued with verbal warnings.
● One official was dismissed.
● 77 officials were found to be liable for the financial losses, and debt recovery processes had been instituted against them.
● 17 officials were exonerated after disciplinary processes were taken against them.
● Nine officials were offered counselling, and some taken for training.
● Forty-three officials were not found negligent after investigations were conducted.
Zulu said 12 officials could not face consequences as some were no longer in the employ of Sassa due to resignation, retirement or death. She said this transpired before the process could be effected.
“It must be noted that there are instances where one official committed more than one misconduct case and, as such, some of his/her cases could have been finalised or combined with a single sanction. The agency is still investigating some of the cases that are not yet finalised,” she said.
In a separate reply to DA MP Bridget Masango about the measures taken to stem fraud, Zulu said Sassa and the Social Development Department had adopted a zero-tolerance stance on fraud and corruption and boosted its information communication and technology capabilities to bolster prevention.
DA MP Dr Dion George asked Zulu whether her department and Treasury had reached an agreement on a comprehensive social relief package to address the growing levels of food insecurity.
She gave the strongest indication that the SRD grant could be worked into a “permanent intervention”.
Zulu said at its peak, the SRD grant was able to support 10.9 million beneficiaries in March last year, with the number dropping to 8.1 million people in mid-November, which she attributed to a stricter qualifying criterion.
“The (latest) extension of the provision (of the SRD grant) until the 2023/24 financial year will provide some assistance to cushion the effects of poverty, food insecurity and the high inflation rate among the poor, particularly the working-age population who have been hardest hit by the pandemic, while a sustainable permanent intervention is being explored,” she said.
Further talks are ongoing with the Treasury about “longer-term interventions, including other complementary measures linked to labour activation measures”.