Compiled by Jehran Naidoo
Durban - The Auditor-General of South Africa’s office has uncovered that Sassa paid an independent contractor north of R300 million in 2014 to administer payments,but did not deliver on their promises.
The AG was presenting the audit outcomes of the 2021/2022 annual report of the Department of Social Development (DSD) and its entities to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Wednesday.
DSD’s entities include Sassa and the National Development Agency (NDA).
Forensic experts have been appointed to get to the bottom of Sassa’s irregular expenditure, according to a News24 report.
It said the contractor was hired to handle grant payments but did not follow through on the job.
The AG report said the payment was made as part of a variation to the service level agreement (SLA) with the company, but the variation went against Sassa’s supply chain protocols.
The report said the payment means Sassa would have suffered a loss because the service provider in question is in liquidation.
The AG became aware of the irregular expenditure in October last year.
In February, National Treasury appointed a private forensic investigation firm to get to the bottom of the R316 million payment that was made.
It is reported that the investigation is ongoing.
Furthermore, the AG’s presentation showed that Sassa incurred irregular expenditure of R54.62 million for the reported period.
However, the DSD, as a whole, saw its irregular expenditure decrease for the year when compared to the previous reporting period.
For 2020/2021, DSD incurred R105.62m in irregular expenditure while incurring R69.9m for 2021/2022, a drop of more around R30 million.
“We have a breakdown of the R69.9m among the three entities, as you can see. R54.6 million relates to Sassa, which is about 78% of that irregular expenditure and DSD for about 22% or R14.67 million,” the AG’s office told MPs.
“Sassa, the R54.6 million, majority related to expired lease contracts. We also picked up that they did not follow the normal supply chain and tender processes for the cleaning and sanitation contracts that were awarded in some of the offices,” it added.
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