Madam Deputy Speaker, hon members and colleagues, it is yet again a privilege for me to be at this podium today, mandated by the Department of Social Development to, maybe, release the report of its newborn baby, Sassa, which is the South African Social Security Agency, born on 1 April 2006. The ANC-led government took over on 27 April 1994 and much has been done to transform the apartheid legacy in this department, where social help was only meant for the white minority and aimed at their choices.
The Freedom Charter clearly states that all shall share in the wealth of this country. Social assistance was extended to all as stated in section 27(1)(c) of the Constitution, and the CRSS, Committee for the Restructuring of Social Security, was appointed to conduct research and their recommendations led to 14 departments administering different societies. Later, CRSS felt that there were still remnants of discrimination and therefore the CICSS, or Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security, was established and its recommendations led to the Presidential Jobs Summit in 1998.
In 2002 the Taylor Committee's report demonstrated political will and a review was conducted on social security. In his state of the nation address in 2002 President Thabo Mbeki announced a campaign to register all who were eligible for social grants in 2003 and all who took part were thanked. In 2004 the social grants were extended from the age of seven to 14. However, there were still remnants of apartheid in-between. A 10-year progress review in the first decade and microsocial trends in South Africa in 2006 all highlighted that there are still a lot of vulnerable people, especially in the rural areas, who are unable to access social grants. Sassa was then established to improve service delivery by improving turn around times for applications and appeals, and cutting down on corruption in the system, as well as providing quality service at pay points, informed by the principles of Batho Pele.
Sassa is responsible for the management and delivery of social grants. Its strategic intent is to facilitate improvement in the quality of services provided to beneficiaries and ensure that the minimum standards operate countrywide for consistent and predictable service delivery. It took over this function in the provinces from 1 April 2006. As has already been said, this is the summary of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development's report on an oversight visit to the South African Social Security Agency from 21 to 24 August 2006.
The purpose of the oversight visit was to obtain first-hand information on the progress that had been made with the establishment of this very new agency. The following offices were visited. We started at the Sassa head office in Pretoria. Sassa has made significant progress in assuming the full social assistance administration functions since 1 April. The organisational structures at its head office and regional offices have been stabilised and key appointments have been made, especially in the area of financial management.
The process of installing the essential information technology, human resource and physical infrastructure networks has also unfolded fairly smoothly without any reported disruptions to the mechanism and system of grant payments. Sassa has also assumed full control and inherited accountability for operation of the Scopen system while the funds flow process for the payment of grants between the national Department of Social Development, Sassa and the provinces has been finalised. A communication strategy has been developed and is in the process of being rolled out.
Sassa further reported that they are in the process of procuring about 40 mobile service units equipped with essential material to complement efforts to enhance levels of service delivery in the deep rural areas. A tender has been issued for the procurement of mobile unit, with the evaluation and implementation of the tender only expected during the 2006-07 financial year.
Sassa also pointed out a number of challenges it still experiences, including fraud prevention, litigation, equity plans for employing disabled persons and service delivery improvements.
The agency is vigorously dealing with inherited short-term problems such as illegitimate beneficiaries by looking at things that lead to corruption of the database. It has a fully fledged fraud unit complemented by, among others, a fraud hotline through which fraud linked to grant administration and payments can be reported. Frauds tip-offs received are handed over to the Special Investigating Unit, SIU, for in-depth investigation.
What we saw in the Eastern Cape region is that the Eastern Cape regional office is fully established and operational. As from 1 April 2006 a national tender for seven district offices, independent from the Department of Social Development, was to have been approved and was due to be advertised at the time of the visit.
In terms of human capital, the Eastern Cape region reported that 1 400 social security personnel were transferred to Sassa in the region as from that very date. Nine hundred of these staff members are on short-term contracts. Of the 57 critical posts advertised to date, 52 have been filled by women, who thus constitute 90% of these posts.
The region indicated that it was compliant with the requirements for financial management and reporting as set out by the head office. However, challenges were reported in respect of commitments carried over from the 2005-06 fiscal year. One challenge is the fact that the region still needed to make use of the Department of Social Development's bank account for the transfer of payments, as well as the actual division of ring-fenced assets and liabilities. A further challenge for the region is to obtain clarity on who, between Sassa and the Department of Social Development, is responsible for litigation cases that were filed before and after 1 April 2006. The roll-out of the enhanced management information system will contribute significantly to reducing the region's turnaround time in grant applications and thus improve levels of customer satisfaction. The system is a computerised resource mechanism that hosts grant application files and is able to track movements of files and eradicate the possibility of missing files, which has been the source of many litigation actions.
The regional office has an established and functional Medical Asset Unit, which is credited with improving the quality of disability and care dependency grant assessments. The unit has 15 doctors, two for each district, who conduct quality control of disability applications, focusing on technical issues.
The issue of poor infrastructure and poor office and road conditions in outlying areas continues to be a hindering challenge for the region. The reliance on other stakeholders such as the Department of Home Affairs and the Departments of Health for medical assessments and Justice for foster care matters was also reported to be a challenge. The fact that there is currently no clear policy on appeals was also cited as a challenge in the region's efforts to improve grant administration. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
The Deputy Chief Whip of the Majority Party moved: That the Report be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report accordingly adopted.