Officials responsible for capturing, verifying and approving fraudulent grant applications will be held financially accountable.
Sassa CEO Themba Matlou. Picture: Department of Social Development
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has warned officials who bypass its biometric verification system to process and approve social grant applications will face criminal charges and dismissal as the agency intensifies its crackdown on fraud and corruption.
Sassa CEO Themba Matlou said the agency would also seek to recover financial losses from implicated officials by applying for preservation orders against their Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) benefits through the high courts.
Tough action against corrupt officials
Matlou said Sassa was determined to protect the integrity of the country’s social grant system by ensuring grants reached only eligible beneficiaries.
“All officials found to have bypassed the Sassa biometric system to process and approve applications will be charged and dismissed from the agency,” he said.
The agency has stepped up efforts to eliminate fraud and corruption within its grant administration system while ensuring “the right social grant is paid to the right and deserving person”.
According to Matlou, officials responsible for capturing, verifying and approving fraudulent grant applications would be held financially accountable.
“Sassa will apply for preservation order on the GEPF of the capturer, the verifier and the approver of such grant applications through high courts to recover all financial losses suffered by the state,” he said.
Biometric system central to fraud prevention
“We have introduced various measures to root out fraudulent and corrupt elements at Sassa and we are not going to rest until we know that we have officials who are ready to serve our people with integrity.
“As such we introduced the Beneficiary Biometric Enrollment to deal with identity theft, thus ensuring that we pay social grants to deserving beneficiaries,” he said.
While Sassa has continued reviewing beneficiaries to identify people receiving grants unlawfully, Matlou said the agency was also focusing on corruption from within.
‘Bad apples’ in Sassa targeted
“It is not a secret that some of our officials have been found to have transgressed processes to enable the corrupt scourge. That is why in the last financial years, we dismissed about 43 officials, who, among other transgressions, were found to have committed these acts,” Matlou said.
He reiterated that Sassa would continue “to fight tooth and nail” to clean up the social grant system and preserve government resources.
As the agency marks its 20th anniversary since its establishment in 2006, Matlou vowed anti-corruption efforts would be intensified during the current financial year.
“Sassa is continuing to ramp up efforts to clean up its social grants system in ensuring all the bad apples are rooted out sooner than later,” he said.
