SASSA heading for another crisis, say MPs
Panel of experts slams SASSA for failing to provide information
âThis is heading for another disaster,â remarked ANC MP Vilhelmina Mogotsi after the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) did not show up at Parliament to update it on a new grant payment system Wednesday morning.
The agency was meant to update Parliamentâs social development committee on phasing out the current social grants payment contractor, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), and the possible introduction of the SA Post Office in its place.
The contract with CPS is due to end on 31 March 2018, but SASSA has been silent about the future of the social grant payment system.
The agency has also failed to meet several deadlines set by the Auditor-General and the panel of experts tasked by the Constitutional Court with monitoring SASSAâs progress.
MPs were outraged on Wednesday when they were handed a letter from SASSA in which acting CEO Pearl Bhengu stated that it âwas not necessaryâ to attend the meeting âbecause there was no significant progress to reportâ. Bhengu suggested that SASSA return âlater in Novemberâ to update the committee.
Committee chairperson Rosemary Capa said that despite her efforts to urge both the acting director general of Social Development and Bhengu to attend, they had refused.
ANC MP Sibongile Tsoleli said SASSAâs refusal to meet the committee was âunacceptable and disrespectfulâ. âWe have to summon all of them. If we donât do this now, we are going to sit with the same problem. We canât be seen as failing to hold them to account on the very plan they presented to us,â she said.
DA MP Bridget Masango said it was embarrassing that the report by the panel of experts showed that nearly 90% of what they had asked SASSA for was not provided. âNone of the timelines given were kept. I canât believe that we donât have SASSA here at this critical time,â she said.
Several MPs agreed that the report by the panel of experts was a clear indication that a crisis was looming.
Capa said she would ask the Auditor-General to bring the panel of experts to brief the committee. The post office would also be invited.
In its report to the Constitutional Court, the panel said SASSA had ârepeatedly failed to provide timeous access to informationâ, preventing the panel from adequately doing its work.
âIn the very few instances when SASSA reacted to enquiries as to the reasons for the delay or failure to provide documents, the reasons were of an administrative nature rather than substantive,â the panel said, detailing numerous instances of SASSAâs failure to respond.
âThe failure⌠to provide the relevant information calls into question the integrity and competence of SASSA, which must reflect on its ability to execute its responsibilities,â the panel said. As a result, the panel asked the Constitutional Court to instruct the agency to give it âaccess to informationâ.
âSeveral of the timelines stated in SASSAâs first report to the Court have not been met,â the panel noted, expressing concern that the measures taken so far and the timelines proposed by SASSA were âunlikely to enable a seamless transitionâ to a new payment system by 1 April 2018.
âSASSA does not yet have a visible plan to manage CPSâs exit from the current system,â the panel warned.
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