Despite promising that a new social grants services provider would be announced at the end of September, the Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) have remained mum on the entity that will take over the payments function.
SASSA, an entity of the social development department, is in search of a new payments distributor following an order directed by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).
In March, the ConCourt was forced to extend the contract with Cash Paymaster Services for another 12 months to avoid a social grants catastrophe. The court also ordered the agency to use this time to find a suitable provider when the current contract lapses.
Earlier this month, SASSA acting CEO Pearl Bhengu reiterated the agency will "officially announce the new service provider on 28 September".
Bhengu's comments seemed to back minister Bathabile Dlamini's pronouncements during an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) briefing. Dlamini said the appointment of a new service provider would be announced before the end of September, after the bid evaluation committee had considered the due diligence report.
The decision would lift the lid on the role of the SA Post Office (SAPO) in the future of social grants payments. SAPO, through Postbank, has declared its readiness to be the service provider for the payment of grants beyond March 2018.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was also appointed to conduct the technical due diligence on SAPO based on the recommendation of the IMC.
Meanwhile, the auditor-general (AG) slammed SASSA for not taking "effective steps to prevent irregular expenditure".
Eyewitness News reports the AG deemed the R43 million spent by SASSA on work streams to have been irregular.
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