Anti-fraud campaign saves State more than R600-million in year

29 March 2006

Patrick Cull

THE national department of social development has saved the State more than R600-million over the past year as a result of its anti-fraud campaign, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya has told the National Assembly in Cape Town.
Presenting his budget, Skweyiya said savings of more than R400-million had laid a solid foundation for the new Social Security Agency. He also said the National Prosecuting Authority had prosecuted more than 500 of the over 12 000 public servants “who we believe are involved in corruption or are defrauding the social security system”.
In addition, the minister said, a further 35 000 suspect cases had been identified through an anti-fraud hotline, for further investigation.
He said R47-million had been allocated in this year’s budget to accelerate “our ground- breaking collaboration” with the Special Investigation Unit.
Skweyiya said lessons learnt from the collaboration with the SIU had resulted in improved review processes of the recipients of disability grants. An additional 150 000 recipients of temporary disability grants had been reviewed with “very little disruption of disbursement processes”. As a result, a total saving of more than R200-million had been achieved.
“In order to consolidate the integrity of our social security system and related processes we are increasing the national budget allocation for system integrity from R24-million in the current financial year to R60- million in the next.”
Some of these funds, he said, would be devoted to strengthening the department’s management information systems.
“We are committed to drastically reducing the turnaround times for grant applications, to improving the effectiveness of our risk management processes, and to standardising reporting procedures across provinces.
“The agreements that have been reached with our partners in the banking sector are most welcome, as we are committed to ensuring that no-one has to travel more than five kilometres to receive his or her grant.”
Skweyiya announced that the first phase of the establishment of the national Social Security Agency was on track for completion by the end of this month.
The agency would initially take over social assistance payments in Gauteng, Western Cape and Northern Cape, and in the other provinces by March 2007.

Source: The Herald

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