1. The Fund-Raising Amendment Bill, once signed into law, will culminate in the dissolution of the Refugee Relief, Social Relief, State President and Disaster Relief Funds with the exception of South African National Defence Force Fund (in terms of clause 7 of the amendment Bill), The amendment Bill establishes a new Disaster Relief and National Social Development Fund, and in terms of clause 7, transfers all the assets and liabilities of the existing funds to the new Fund. There should thus be no impact on the Funds, as the four funds are being consolidated into one, and all their assets and liabilities will be transferred to the new Fund once the President has signed the Bill into law.
2. (a) SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The Department has an established an Entity Oversight Forum. This engagement was prompted by the Auditor General’s report that the Department strengthen its oversight on its public entities. The main focus of the Forum is to:
The Audit Steering Committee has also been re-established to address all Auditor-General’s findings within the Department and its Entities. The Committee meets on monthly basis to discuss the Audit Implementation Action Plan. Responses to challenges related to audit findings and related implementation plans are managed and overseen as preparations for the scheduled Audit Committee meetings.
2(b) NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY:
The NDA has put in place the following measures in place to prevent the occurrence of irregular expenditure:
a) The development a policy and detailed Standard Operating Procedure manual on Irregular Expenditure - In the 2021 Financial year, the entity developed a policy on Irregular expenditure, guided by the requirements of the Framework for Irregular expenditure that was issued by the National Treasury. The Framework and the policy are intended to institutionalise the processes for the treatment of Irregular expenditure identification, determination of losses and investigation of cases of irregular expenditure. After approval of the policy, awareness workshops were held across all NDA offices where NDA staff were workshopped on the policy.
b) Establishment of an independent Loss Control Committee to investigate all reported cases of Irregular Expenditure - The establishment of this committee is informed by the requirement of the Framework on Irregular expenditure that was issued by National Treasury. The Loss Control Committee is expected to investigate all reported cases within 30 days of these instances being reported. This committee will ensure that all cases are dealt with timeously. The process to appoint the Loss Control Committee is s expected to be finalised by end of January 2022.
2. SASSA
SASSA takes issues of irregular expenditure very seriously and has focused on the areas listed below;
a) Focus on office accommodation procurement for SASSA:
SASSA recorded additional Irregular expenditure amounting R73 million during the 2020/21 reporting period of which over R43 million relate to occupation of office accommodation with expired lease agreements. The procurement of alternative accommodation by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure was not concluded by the time a lease expired and SASSA did not request approval to extend the existing lease agreement on time.
Mechanism being put in place are:
b) Strengthen internal controls
c) Strengthen implementation of disciplinary corrective measures for already incurred irregular expenditure cases: