Social grants clean-up saves billions
11 September 2008
The Department of Social Development has made good progress in its three-year-old campaign to rid South Africa's social security system of fraudulent grant recipients, with 333 233 grants worth over over R1-billion a year scratched from the system so far - translating to future savings of around R8.4-billion.
The campaign started when a special investigating unit was appointed under a presidential proclamation in April 2005. Initially set up to last a period of three years, the department has since extended the campaign by a further three years, till March 2011.
To ensure that the unit is able to maintain a dedicated capacity on the social grant campaign, the Department of Social Development has committed R60-million per year to the unit, ensuring a sustainable reduction in social grant abuse.
"Already the successes of this partnership has exceeded the cost of our investment and prompted us to continue with the arrangement," Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said in a statement this week.
"This should send a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated, be it opportunistic or systematic."
Removing irregular beneficiaries
According to Skweyiya, the results of the investigation can be seen in respect of the removal of irregular beneficiaries from the system, deterring future conduct, improving the social grant administration processes and holding people accountable through recovering illegal social grants.
During the investigation, approximately 12.6-million electronic records were analysed on the social pensions database to identify anomalies, and 44 200 social pension beneficiary files were examined.
"We have ensured that 21 189 irregular private beneficiaries and public servants repay the illegally obtained grants worth R114.374-million," he said. "We are pleased that we have been able to achieve future savings of R8.4-billion, generated through the investigation."
The department and the unit have also started to identify trends and patterns in the type of people abusing the system, especially in new applications, existing grants and administration.
"It has come to light that the grants most affected by these syndicates are disability and child support grants," Skweyiya said. "The syndicates are believed to be selling falsified medical certificates for a fee of between R300 to R1 000 and false clinic cards to members of the public, who use the cards to apply for child support grants for non-existent children."
Closing gaps
The unit is also assisting the department in closing the gaps that exist on the social pensions system to prevent further abuse, with regular audits being conducted on the system, while also continually trying to improve its monitoring and verification systems.
Skweyiya added that the department was extra vigilant since the High Court ruled that people could apply for child support grants with alternative forms of identification, instead of identity documents and birth certificates.
While the department was opposed to the court action for fear that the use of alternative identification would make the system vulnerable to fraud, he said that the department respected the court judgement and was busy implementing the directive.
He warned that those who stole from the social grant system needed to reconsider their actions, or face the consequences of those actions.
"The estimated R1.5-billion that is lost to fraud and corruption annually can go a long way to assisting the needy in this country," Skweyiya said. "The department is intensifying its campaign against fraud and corruption and will take stern action against anyone who is illegally benefiting from funds meant to support the poor."
SAinfo reporter
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