Introduction

• The legacies of the past have resulted in the poor service delivery to citizens. Social security was administered by 14 different departments from different population groups and homelands. This resulted in fragmentation, duplication, and inefficiencies in service delivery;
• The provinces do not have standardised processes and procedures to administer grant administration;
• High unemployment rates have increased the demand for social grants, especially for the disability grants. Unemployment has increased the vulnerability of the poor who turn to the Department for social support;
• The rural nature of the country and low literacy levels of the poor make it difficult for the Department to reach all needy citizens;
• Delivery of social security grants is faced with increasing pressure from dynamic socio-economic conditions, mounting stakeholder expectations and rapidly changing technology. These poor levels of service are characterised by long queues; and
• One of the concerns in the social security operations is fraud and litigation cases. It is envisaged that the more than R2 billion currently lost on fraud and litigation could escalate if the national and provincial departments do not rectify the problem. (The R2 billion estimate is based on an international norm; 10% of transfers to beneficiaries is lost where antiquated systems are used).

• Fragmentation of the Social Security system/Institutional Arrangements – the historic 14 separate social security systems led to loopholes which could be easily exploited by unscrupulous officials and members of the public. Further, the assignment of the Social Assistance Act to provinces precludes the National Department from direct service delivery in the area of social security. There may invariably be conflicts between the National and provincial social security strategies.
• Business Processes – the processes used by the various provinces vary inter- and intra-provincially. There is lack of uniformity in the forms used and customer relationship procedures. It is extremely difficult to track duplicate records of the same beneficiary in another province. Financial reconciliation processes in some of the provinces are poor with reconciliation backlogs existing. The Regulations that govern social security are complex and staff is largely inadequately trained to use them. In many instances there are varying interpretations of the application of these regulations. In some cases cheques are used as a method of payment which leaves the system open to fraud and corruption.
• Human Resources – skills shortages in the delivery structures are raised constantly as a key challenge. There is also lack of clarity in the provincial structures resulting in poor accountability and poor co-ordination. Training provided is inadequate and not aligned to business requirements. Morale is low as the officials are swamped and are trying to cope with the increase volume of beneficiaries.
• Financial Management Skills – Some provinces do not have the staff with the necessary skills to properly discharge their financial management responsibilities. Going forward, this poses a concern as the responsibilities placed by the PFMA Act on accounting officers have personal implications. There is also concern around whether provinces are utilising their resources optimally if they are not employing sound financial management practices;
• Payment Contractors – the provincial departments depend on payment contractors to discharge its payment responsibilities. Some of the contractors are not treating the beneficiaries well resulting in the Department suffering negative press coverage and a less than desired image. Poor management of service level agreements (SLA’s) with contractors creates a gap between the Department and its customers. For example, information coming in from the ground is not always passed on to the Department. The Provincial Departments of Social Development may not be enjoying the best commercial terms, as it is not pooling its buying power in negotiations with the third party contractors. In some cases, the Department is getting varying levels of service from the same contractor in different provinces;
• Information Systems – the current grant administration system (SOCPEN) is not user friendly and does not support all the key business requirements of the Department. A key constraint is in its inability to support the MIS requirements for effective social security service delivery. The system controls are also weak making the system open to fraud. Another concern is the integrity of the information held in the system;
• Interfaces with Other Key Departments – the Department of Social Development depends on other key government departments like Home Affairs, Labour, Health and SARS to authenticate the eligibility of a beneficiary. However, most of these links are carried out manually impacting negatively on the turnaround times in service delivery in the Department.

• Study and review all documentation, reports of commissions, investigations, policy documents, relevant Acts and Regulations with regard to recommendations on the restructuring, improvement and reengineering of the social security system;
• Review and develop social security norms and standards in which the focus areas will include amongst others the human resources, organisational performance, management and administrative procedures, technological infrastructure, customer care, financial and information systems, and control procedures;
• Identify areas of inefficiencies, discrepancies and possible improvements within the context of restructuring and the development of national norms and standards;
• Develop norms and standards which will promote uniformity and improve the quality of service delivery by drawing on the best practice models locally and internationally;
• Recommend practical and cost effective guidelines for the implementation of norms and standards relevant to the level and function of a specific national, provincial, regional and district office;
• Design output or outcome based norms and standards, measurement tools and incentives to be integrated into the system to promote effective service delivery; and
• Identify any constraints that may impair the attainment of uniformity and the application of national norms and standards and propose solutions.

• to standardise the quality of service given to all citizens at national, provincial, regional and district levels;
• to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness by defining norms and standards against which they should perform; and
• to introduce evaluation and monitoring instruments for the management of the norms and standards.

• A Central model (business design) that is consistent, and managed and maintained nationally should underpin social security supported by underlying business processes.
• Customer Service – focus should be on ensuring that beneficiaries are treated with respect and are provided services quickly regardless of which office or province they are dealing with;
• Information Technology – the overall IT support systems for the basic process will be consistent and on a single platform. This also helps to enforce standards in areas of identification, verification, frequency of payment and review;
• Service/Performance Levels – a key focus of the Norms and Standards work is on the outcomes in terms of performance (length of time in processing etc). These are MINIMUM service levels and there should be an expectation and desire for all areas to exceed.
• "Branding" – there must be standardisation of forms, receipting procedures, and these services must be provided and supported by the National Department.

Following are the proposed norms for the critical areas of service delivery. It must be borne in mind that these norms are proposed within the current business model of social security being a concurrent function (Schedule 4).

1. Institutional Arrangements

• The role of the national office has to be redefined in order to address the challenges caused by the current institutional arrangements. Standardisation will not be achieved through developing guidelines and asking provinces to apply them.
• There is therefore a need to build capacity in a national organisation to support this. The current staff compliment at national will be inadequate to ensure standardisation and maintaining excellent levels of service delivery; and
• The National Department’s role in implementation of policies, monitoring, evaluation and audit needs to be reinforced.

• The shift to a more developmental paradigm in social development demands a balanced approach between social security and social welfare;
• Accountability and responsibility with respect to Social Security should be at a more senior level in provinces;
• The organisational structures at provincial, regional and district levels will be aligned to the necessary business requirements and functions; and
• Strong human resources development strategies will be implemented to build the necessary management competencies in the existing team. In some instances, Social Security will need to recruit in order to fast track the change into an efficient and customer centred organisation.

• The grant administration approval cycle time will be reduced from the current 3 to 6 months to 2 days. The proposal, supported by up to date information technology and trained personnel will help achieve this norm;
• Application forms will be standardised and automated;
• Interfaces with the Departments of Home Affairs, Health, the Government Pension Fund, etc will be a requirement to expedite application processing and verification;
• New access channels (kiosks, the internet, call centres and using FBO’s and NGO’s) will be introduced to increase the number of access points;
• Decentralisation of operations to district offices will facilitate quick decision making and accountability;
• Automated file tracking, verification and approval will be introduced to reduce paperwork;
• Compliance and procedural controls will be express requirements to reduce fraudulent activities.

• The distribution of resources that is currently extremely unequal will be addressed by introducing a norm for the ratio of officials to beneficiaries.
• Competencies for social security such as financial management, customer service, fraud detection, etc will be the requirement in line with government’s Skills Development Act and use will be made of the Health and Welfare SETA; and
• Professionalism will be introduced in social security and a performance driven culture cultivated.

• The introduction of norms and standards will drive a customer-centred and service driven culture with the Batho Pele Principles as the foundation;
• Customers will be segmented to enable the strategy towards meeting their specific needs and their self provisioning/development;
• Increase access channels will fast track service delivery, putting the onus on government to achieve outputs inline with the principles of administrative fairness;
• A national Call Centre will be established to provide remote technology and allow for application processing from a telephone anywhere in SA.

• Beneficiaries should be encouraged to use the Banks and the Post Office (Post Bank) in addition to payment contractors;
• The National Department must be involved in negotiations of service level agreements to ensure uniformity and maximisation of the Department’s buying power;
• Varying levels of service delivery due to multiple service level agreements will be addressed through a base service level agreement stipulating the minimum norms;
• Payment should be facilitated through social security cards that cater for beneficiary movement between provinces. The programme implementation will be aligned to the rollout of the HANIS smartcard project;
• The Department will ensure compliance through performance targets and in-built penalty clauses.

• Paypoints must not service more than 1000 beneficiaries;
• The size and location of paypoints must be determined by the area’s demography and geography;
• The ATMs of payment contractors should service a maximum of beneficiaries or payment should be staggered such that beneficiaries do not spend more than 2 hours waiting for their entitlement;
• Paypoints and the ATMs must be inspected at least 3 times a year to ensure compliance.

• While the poor physical infrastructure, that compromises the customer’s confidentiality is being audited, the proposed norm for physical space in an office will be guided by the norms of the Department of Public Works;
• Future investment in physical infrastructure will be guided by the move towards a ‘one stop shop’ to support integrated service delivery in conjunction with other government departments;
• Deployment of IT must be driven by business goals inline with the guidelines of the Government’s Information Technology Policies (GITO);
• IT hardware, software and networks must be standardised to ensure a predictable service, economies of scale and maximisation of buying power;
• The replacement of the SOCPEN system will be aligned to the implementation of norms and standards.

• Both the national and provincial offices will be responsible for budgeting. Budgeting will be informed by existing take-up rates, backlogs as well as population studies (demographic patterns);
• To address the late reconciliations, payment contractors will be required to first pay beneficiaries and then submit a claim to the Department;
• Human resources capacity of the finance unit in social security will be increased and modern financial management tools must be used to ensure compliance with the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA);
• A Fraud/Compliance unit will be set up as a matter of urgency.

• The Norms and Standards project - this project entails the reengineering of norms and standards, namely the rationalisation of the grant administration processes, redesigning the financial processes and the HR processes, human resources development, improvement of customer care and communications. This project also includes the improvement of supporting facilities such as the Pay Points, Call Centres, Help Desks, IT infrastructure, etc.
• SOCPEN Replacement - A new Integrated Social Security System will be established to electronically enable the new norms and standards. This will include the implementation of on-line applications, on-line verifications, on-line approval, on-line interfaces to other departments (e.g. Home Affairs), Smart Cards technology, Biometrics technology, Management Information Systems (MIS) for fraud detection, etc. The implementation of the new Integrated Social Security System will also include training of officials, procurement of new hardware and software, procurement of professional services etc.
• Physical Infrastructure Upgrade - This project is concerned with the current audit and improvement of the buildings, facilities and layout. This will include renovations and constructing new buildings for the district offices, regional offices, provincial offices, etc. whilst ensuring integrated investment through the ‘one stop shop’ concept.

It is envisaged that a solution of this nature would take three years to implement and a further two years to stabilise before realising full benefits. Some of the activities that will be performed in the current fiscal year phase include:

• Standardise application, medical review forms, receipts, and acknowledgement letters;
• Rollout the components of Fraud detection and risk management;
• Provincial exchange programs (Formalise structures);
• Development and distribution of role base user manuals to improve skills levels and controls;
• Segmentation of Stakeholders and design of relevant messages for each segment;
• Design and implementation of name tags for all the officials;
• Information sharing on litigation cases;
• Renegotiate performance standards with payment contractors and other 3^rd parties;
• Use proposed financial management norms for budgeting for the next fiscal year;
• Encourage or enforce monthly reconciliations;
• Communication of national budget allocations to provinces so that they can negotiate with provincial treasuries;
• Employ staggered rates for 3^rd party charges based on beneficiary amounts;

• A programme office will be situated at the national office, supported by provincial teams.
• The overall programme team will be comprised of a sizable team of resources from the nine provinces who will be involved on a full time basis and a number of external experts.
• The implementation will be done in all the District Offices across the nine provinces; Each Provincial team has to cover an average of 29 District Offices in 36 months;
• Each Provincial Team will be comprised of multi-skilled resources on pay points, business process, infrastructure, people, customer care and communications, financial management.

• The decision to invest on the norms and standards project must be judged using the benefits case criteria that are linked to the department business objectives and strategy; and
• The proposed investment is supported by quantitative and analytical rigor.

• More efficient and effective service delivery - Electronic interfaces with key sources of entitlement information, such as the Department of Home Affairs, will ensure that the right information is speedily and reliably available for entitlement decisions. Improved speed of decision-making will itself bring an improvement in control, since it will lead to earlier identification of, and action on, citizens not entitled to benefit.
• Efficiencies in CaseWork – There will be a reduction in the movement of paper in social security grant processing and consequent effort in linking with files. Also the handling of a much wider range of enquiries by the Citizen Call-centre will relieve casework sections from these tasks.
• A more professional organisation - The transformation programme will provide an opportunity to change the management operations of social security, including the introduction of modern information technology and associated methods of working. Extensive reskilling and a stronger focus on active management will add to a stronger public sector ethos and help to develop a more professional and motivated workforce.
• More Responsive Organisation - The establishment of a focused delivery organisation, with staff progressively developing to take on a broader range of casework, together with more up-to-date and frequent management information, will enable social security personnel to respond more effectively to variations in volume and mix of workload.
• Improved Citizen Services - Direct measures such as the establishment of a Citizen Call-Centre and a separate Appeals Unit will enable the personnel in social security to be more responsive to claimants, beneficiaries and their representatives. The flexibility provided by the smartcard payments solution will also lead to increased services through the provision of more choice in method and location of benefits payments.
• Administrative savings - Savings in the costs of administering benefits, for example reallocating staff from clerical work to performing citizen service functions.

• Availability of resources – The social security function lacks capacity at both National and Provincial level. Successful implementation of norms and standards will require a strong team, supported by external experts. The exact number of resources will fluctuate during the life cycle of the project. This will be driven by size and effort required at that particular moment. One of the major causes of this is the unavailability of resources, coupled with lack of experienced and skilled officials.
• Introducing norms and standards require a major change management programme – Introducing new ways of working will require a well-thought plan that will reduce incidents of resistance. Participation of the entire Social Security team in the implementation is a critical success factor. As such, it is important that performance targets and measures be introduced early in the implementation to provide visibility of the success of the course being taken;
• Communication with Key stakeholders – Implementation of norms and standards will be successful as long as it is supported by a good communication plan. The Department should immediately start communicating with various stakeholders on the migration programme;
• Re-aligned priorities - Provinces have their own priorities, which do not necessarily align to those of the National. The priorities of the national and provincial social security have to be re-aligned to ensure ownership of the new norms and standards;
• Maintaining the customer service levels - Maintaining the customer service levels in the current capabilities whilst building the future capabilities is important to prevent degradation of current customer services.