ATC130503: Report of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Budget Vote 19 and Strategic and Operational Plan of the Department of Social Development for 2013/14 and its Entities, dated 30 April 2013
Social Development
(
The following report replaces the Report of
the Portfolio Committee on Social Development which was published in the
Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports of 02 May 2013, on page 1069).
REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ON
BUDGET VOTE 19 AND STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL
PLAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FOR 2013/14 AND ITS ENTITIES,
DATED 30 APRIL 2013
The Portfolio Committee on Social
Development having considered and deliberated on the budget vote and the
strategic plans of the Department of Social Development and its entities on 23
and 24 April 2013, wishes to report as follows:
1.
Introduction
The Committees mandate as prescribed by the Constitution of South Africa
and the Rules of Parliament is to build an oversight process that ensures a
quality process of scrutinising and overseeing governments action that is
driven by the ideal of realising a better quality of life for all people of
South Africa.
The
following institutions briefed the Committee: the Department of Social
Development (DSD); the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the
National Development Agency (NDA).
2.
Presentation by the department
The
aim of the department is to ensure the provision of comprehensive, integrated,
sustainable and quality social development services such as protection against
vulnerability.
The budget of the department is directed at addressing poverty,
unemployment, inequality and related social ills that are currently challenging
the country.
The vision of the
department is that of a caring and integrated system of social development
services that facilitates human development and improves the quality of life.
The department has the
following programmes:
·
Programme 1: Administration.
·
Programme 2: Social Assistance.
·
Programme 3: Social Security Policy and Administration
·
Programme 4: Welfare Services Policy Development and
Implementation
Support
·
Programme 5: Social Policy and Integrated Service Delivery.
3.
The mandate
of the Department
The department derives its mandate
from several pieces of legislation and policies, including the White Paper for
Social Welfare (1997) and the Population Policy (1998).
The White Paper sets out the
principles, guidelines, policies and programmes for developmental social
welfare in
The constitutional mandate of the
department is to provide sector-wide national leadership in social development
by developing and implementing programmes for the eradication of poverty and
social protection and development amongst the poorest of the poor and most
vulnerable and marginalized.
The
departments mission is to ensure the provision of comprehensive, integrated,
sustainable and quality social development services and create an enabling
environment for sustainable development in partnership with all those committed
to building a caring society.
Strategic goals
The department has made a
strategic decision to accelerate implementation in key areas of work. Its
strategic goals over the medium term are to:
·
Reduce income poverty by providing
social assistance to eligible individuals.
·
Increase household food and
nutrition security.
·
Improve service delivery by
standardising social welfare services [
quality
].
·
Prevent new HIV infections, address
the structural and social drivers of HIV and tuberculosis, and mitigate the
impact of these diseases.
·
Create an enabling and conducive
environment within which NPOs can operate.
·
Improve the quality of and access to
ECD services.
·
Strengthen the child protection
services through the implementation of child care and protection measures.
·
Reduce the demand for illegal and
addictive substances within communities.
·
Facilitate social change and
sustainable development, targeting youths and adults in their communities.
·
Create an enabling environment for
the protection and promotion of older persons rights and people with
disabilities.
·
Strengthen families by providing
comprehensive social services.
4.
Programme
performance
4.1
Programme 1: Administration
The purpose
of this programme is to provide leadership, management and support services to
the department and the social sector.
4.1.1
Strategic,
Risk and Business Processes
The
department has set a strategic objective to improve social development sector
planning process by March 2015.
It
intends to submit Annual Performance Plan to relevant authorities within the
prescribed time frame.
The
department will transform the social infrastructure portfolio in support of
service delivery.
It will develop an
infrastructure spatial optimisation model. It will also facilitate the
improvement of 25 Social Development Sector call centres.
It will train 540 officials on culture reform
programme.
4.1.2
Communication
The aim of
this sub programme is to improve public access to the departments information
and services.
It aims to reach 55 000
people via the departments website and social media.
It will generate free publicity worth R2.2
million.
The department has committed
itself to monitor the corporate identity alignment in the provinces. During
2013/14 financial year the department will conduct brand reputation survey.
4.1.3
Entity
Oversight
The
department has set a goal through this sub programme to have an effective
oversight of public entities reporting to it.
This will be done by means of implementing a Public Entities Oversight
and Management Strategy.
It will also
monitor the implementation of the performance scorecard and develop Performance
Information Management System for public entities.
4.1.4
Monitoring
and evaluation
The
departments goal is to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation in the
Social development sector by 2015.
During the 2013/14 financial year it will update the Social Development
Sector in Monitoring and Evaluation system. It will also develop a multi-year
evaluation plan and strategy.
4.2
Programme
2: Social Assistance
The purpose of this
programme is to p
rovide income support
to vulnerable groups.
The strategic
objective set by the department on this programme is to reduce poverty by
providing support to eligible individuals.
Performance
and expenditure trends
·
Child support grants, and older persons grants make up the bulk of
expenditure on this programme, and reflect the governments commitment to
supporting the most vulnerable members of our society, namely children, the
elderly and the disabled.
·
The number of social grant beneficiaries increased from 15,2 million in
March 2012 to more than 15,9 million at 31 December 2012, and are projected to
increase to about 17,2 million by the end of March 2016.
·
Spending increased significantly from 2009/10 to 2012/13, mainly due to
the extension of the age limit for the child support grant to 18 years, and the
equalisation of access to the older persons grant at 60 years.
·
In 2011/12 financial year, the asset and income threshold for the older
persons grant was increased as part of a broader social security reform
process.
·
Greater awareness is being generated on the grant-in-aid and care
dependency grant. The expenditure is therefore projected to increase over the
current MTEF period.
4.3
Programme 3: Social
Security and Administration
The purpose of this programme is to provide for
social security policy development and fair administration of social assistance
4.3.1
Social Security Policy
Development
The strategic objective of this sub-programme
is to provide
an effective and efficient social
security system that protects poor and vulnerable people against income
poverty.
The department has itself committed
to ensure adherence to norms and standards for the social assistance
programme.
It aims to produce four
oversight reports on adherence to norms and standards for social assistance
programme by 2013/14 financial
year.
A performance indicator set
for this objective is to have a discussion paper on the removal of social grant
means test and the baseline to this is a research on the impact of social
grants.
The department will compile an
annual survey report on social assistance services.
The other strategic objective under this
programme is to provide a uniform and coherent information on social
expenditure.
The output of this
objective will be an annual survey report on social assistance programme.
The department aims to publish and launch the
Social Security Review within the 2013/14 financial year.
4.3.2
Appeals Adjudication
In terms of appeals adjudication, the departments
objective is to provide all applicants for and beneficiaries of social
assistance with access to internal remedies.
The high level outputs set are to ensure timely
adjudication of social assistance appeals and the implementation of an
Integrated Appeals Business Information System.
The department aims to p
rovide by
2013/14 an effective, efficient and accessible social assistance appeals
service by adjudicating 50 per cent of appeals lodged within 90 days of their
receipt.
4.3.3
Inspectorate for Social Security
The
strategic
objective of the sub-programme
is to
establish an Inspectorate for Social Security to ensure the integrity of the
social assistance framework and systems by March 2016.
By the end of the 2013/2014 financial year,
the department has set itself a target to approve a policy framework for social
security inspection.
Performance
and expenditure trends
The department reported that the expenditure on appeals adjudication
will increase in order to speed up the adjudication appeals and increase the
number of appeals adjudicated within 90 days to 65 per cent in 2015/16. The
projected growth in expenditure on this programme over the MTEF period provides
for the development of an integrated appeals business information system
4.4
Programme
4: Welfare Services Policy Development and Implementation support
The purpose
of this programme is to create an enabling environment for the delivery
of equitable developmental welfare services through the formulation of
policies, norms and standards, and best practices. It is also to provide
support to implementation agencies
4.4.1
Service Standards
The strategic objective of this sub-programme is to improve the delivery
of social welfare services through the review of the implementation of the
White Paper for Social Welfare and the Framework for Social Welfare Services.
The department through this programme will ensure the transformation and
standardisation of social welfare services by developing and coordinating
policies and legislation that promote the integration and quality driven and
professional social welfare service delivery.
It will review the implementation of the White Paper for Social Welfare
and conduct a review report on the implementation of the White Paper for Social
Welfare in two provinces.
The department will also assess the scholarship programme. It intends to
draft an assessment report of the scholarship propramme within the 2013/14
financial year.
4.4.2
Social Service Provider Management and
Support
The department will develop a regulatory framework for social service
practitioners by March 2016.
During the
year under review the department will draft a bill for Social Service
Practitioners.
It also intends to
introduce an effective regulatory system for funded NPOs.
It will monitor the implementation of the
Policy on Financial Awards (PFA).
4.4.3
Older Persons
The strategic objective of this sub-programme is to create an
environment that enables the protection and promotion of older persons rights
by:
·
ensuring compliance with the norms and
standards on an ongoing basis, of conditionally registered community based care
services and residential facilities.
Within
this financial year the
department intends to asses 90 community based care services
·
reviewing
the Older Persons Act (2006) to determine if it still addresses the needs of
older persons by March 2016.
Another strategic goal
of this sub-programme is to promote and protect the rights of people with
disabilities.
The department will by
March 2014 draft a legislation that will deal with services to people with
disabilities.
It will develop norms and
standards for residential facilities.
4.4.4
Children
The department aims to improve the quality of Early Childhood
Development (ECD) services by 2015.
In
so doing so, it will develop and implement an ECD policy. By March 2014, the
department would have
drafted the
National ECD integrated Plan (Phase 1), comprehensive package of ECD services,
the human resource capacity for ECD sector departments and capacity building on
the National Education Learning Development Standards (NELDS) and the national
curriculum for 0-4 year olds.
The department will strengthen the child protection services through the
implementation of the child care and protection measures by 2015, by:
·
increasing
the number of children adopted by 10 per cent each year
·
approving
guidelines for the registration of drop in
centres in terms of the Childrens Act (2005) by March 2014
·
monitoring
the implementation plan to transform child and youth care centres in nine
provinces by 2015/16; and
·
increasing
by 20 per cent the screening of people working with children, against part B of
the Child Protection Register, from 28 178 people screened by March 2013 to 33
814 by March 2014.
In relation to protecting and improving the quality of life of orphaned
and other vulnerable children through the Isibindi Model, the department will
continually monitor the implementation of the Isibindi model in all provinces.
4.4.5
Families
The strategic objective of this programme is to strengthen families by
providing comprehensive social services. It develops, supports and monitors the
implementation of policies, legislation and programmes to strengthen families.
In 2012/13, the White Paper on Families was developed and presented to the
relevant cluster before it was submitted to Cabinet for final approval. A key
activity over the medium term will be to provide training on the White
paper.
By March 2014 the department aims
to build capacity on Fatherhood and Active Parenting programme for teenagers.
4.4.6
Substance
abuse
This sub-programmes goal is to reduce demand for substances in
communities by providing prevention and treatment services.
Treatment model for substance abuse was developed and amended
regulations in terms of the Prevention of and the Treatment for Substance Abuse
Act (2008) were finalised.
The
implementation of National Anti-Substance Abuse Programme of Action was
implemented and monitoring of implementation will be done by the provincial
departments.
4.4.7
Social Crime Prevention and Victim
Empowerment
The strategic objective of this sub-programme is to reduce the incidence
of social crime through programmes, policies and legislation by March
2016.
Through this sub-programme the
department will improve the victim empowerment services through programmes,
policies and legislation by March 2016.
It will also improve interdepartmental coordination within the Victim
Empowerment Programme sector.
By March 2014, the department will build capacity to 63 Quality
Assurance Panel members of the Policy Framework on Accreditation of Diversion
Services.
It will also facilitate the implementation
of the Policy Framework on Accreditation of Diversion Services.
In this financial year (2013/2014), the
department will monitor the implementation of the integrated Social Crime
Prevention Strategy Action Plan.
The department intends to draft a bill on victim support services.
It will also monitor the implementation of
gender based violence prevention programs.
It will develop an Inter-sectoral Strategy for VEP programme and develop
a Monitoring and Evaluation system for this programme.
4.4.8
Youth
The goal of this sub-programme is to empower youths for sustainable
development and social change.
It
develops and facilitates the implementation of policies, legislation and
programmes to protect vulnerable youth.
The department has set a target to ensure that by the end of the 2013/14
financial year, 3000 youth will be participating in youth dialogues.
It also intends to establish 3 provincial
youth forums.
4.4.9
HIV and AIDS
The department, through this sub-programme aims to develop and facilitate
the implementation of social and behaviour change programmes.
It has set a target to reach a number of 500
000 youth through social and behavioural change programmes.
Training on this programme will be provided
to 450 organisations.
The department further
aims to
mitigate the psychosocial impact of HIV and AIDS and TB on targeted key
populations.
By the end of the current
financial year it will develop Psychosocial Support Services guidelines.
It will draft a situation analysis report on
HIV prevention. .
It will also draft a
report on the strategic review of the National Action Plan for children and
other vulnerable children affected by HIV and AIDS.
Performance
and expenditure trends
The department reported that most funds will continue to be disbursed to
LoveLIfe, enabling it to increase and extend its HIV and AIDS awareness
programmes, and on scholarship for social work students. By 2015/16, the number
of students benefiting from the scholarship programme is expected to reach
6550. From 2009/10 to 2012/13, the expenditure on the Social Crime Prevention
and Victim Empowerment increased significantly in order to provide for the
implementation of the Child Justice Act (2009). Similarly, the expenditure on
the Substance Abuse sub-programme increased in 2011/12 and 2012/13 in order to
provide for the development of the Regulations on the Prevention and Treatment
of Substance abuse Act (2008). The expenditure on the
goods and services increased substantially in
2011/12 and 2012/13, mainly due to the additional allocations for an ECD audit
and the establishment of a system to facilitate the rollout of the Isibindi
Model.
4.5
Programme
5: Social Policy and Integrated Service Delivery
The purpose of this programme is to support social policy development
and institutionalise evidence-based policy-making by social service departments
and implementing agencies.
It also
registers and monitors NPOs and community development and coordinate the
incubation and innovation of departmental and social cluster initiatives such
as the EPWP.
4.5.1
Special Projects and Innovation
The department has set itself a goal to increase job opportunities,
skills and income levels in the Social Development Sector.
This sub programme
provides for the coordination, incubation and
innovation of departmental and social cluster initiatives such as the expanded
public works programme. It intends to promote community driven development and
provide social protection to military veterans. For the year under review, the
department will create 33 307 job opportunities.
4.5.2
Registration and Monitoring of Non-Profit
Organisations
This sub-programme aims to create an enabling environment for NPOs.
The department intends to process 90% of
applications for registration of NPOs within two months. It approved a policy
for amending the NPO Act.
A total number
of 2 500 NPOs were trained on governance and compliance with NPO Act.
4.5.3
Community Development
Through this sub-programme the department supports and monitors the implementation
of community development services and programmes.
Performance
and expenditure trends
The department reported that most spending on this programme in the
current MTEF period will comprise transfers to the NDA, which is meant to use
the funds to support NPOs that work to improve food security and create job
opportunities. The spending on community development will increase
significantly due to an additional allocation of R120 million to FoodBank South
5.
Financial
implications
The overall budget of the department for the financial
year 2013/14 is R120.7 billion compared to R112.1 billion the previous
financial year, which represents an increase of 7.44 per cent in nominal
terms.
The bulk of the departmental
budget (
99.5
per cent) constitutes transfers and subsidies and only 0.5 per cent goes to
current payments. T
he most significant transfer is approximately
R113.0 billion in value, intended as social assistance transfers to
beneficiaries.
The reason for this is that
grants aim to boost the income of
poor households, which suffer the brunt of unemployment, poverty and inequality
that persists in the South African society. The 2013 Budget includes additional
allocations of R35.6 million in .
As part of Cabinet approved budget reductions,
the department will reduce spending by R451.8 million in 2013/14. The table
below shows budget allocation across programmes.
Table 1: Budget allocation per programme
Programme
|
2012/13
|
2013/14
|
2014/15
|
2015/16
|
R'000
|
R'000
|
R'000
|
R'000
|
|
P1: Administration
|
255,277
|
264,003
|
278,829
|
293,281
|
P2: Social Assistance
|
104,887,916
|
113,206,841
|
121,982,101
|
129,493,278
|
P3: Social Security Policy and Administration
|
6,308,700
|
6,467,920
|
6,732,540
|
6,970,845
|
P4: Welfare Service Policy Development and
Implementation Support
|
513,824
|
513,105
|
525,749
|
545,725
|
P5: Social Policy and Integrated Service Delivery
|
251,044
|
289,731
|
310,159
|
326,971
|
TOTAL
|
112,216,761
|
120,741,600
|
129,829,378
|
137,630,100
|
6.
Observations
·
The Committee noted that the department in its programmes
had not given enough focus on programmes aimed at addressing issues of people
with disabilities.
This was raised as an
area of concern and the department was urged to include this as one of its
priority areas.
·
The Committee noted that the department has several acting
positions in the senior management level.
It raised that this may have an impact on the service delivery of the
department
·
The Committee observed that the department is still lagging
behind in terms of capacitating Non Profit Organisations. Issues of NPO
registration, compliance to norms and standards guidelines and other factors
hampering
service delivery of NPOs were
highlighted as a main challenge.
It
emphasized that the department should
prioritise this issue and put monitoring and evaluation mechanisms aimed at
addressing service delivery challenges. It further observed that the absence of
standardised guidelines to address challenges related to funding of the NGOs
has had an impact on the services rendered by NGOs since 60% of the work of the
department is done by them. It noted that there is still a lack of support to
NGOs, such as capacity building and funding.
The Committee raised the
following concerns:
·
The costing of the Childrens Act projected that the
implementation of the Act was going to require 66 000 social workers. The
department reported that at the time of the reporting there were approximately
6 000 social workers on the field. Since the inception of the Social Work
Scholarship, 8 665 scholarships had been awarded. In 2011/12 financial
year, there were 918 social work scholarships awarded which represented 23.4%.
[1]
The number of scholarships awarded depends on the number of applicants and the
number of students accepted by relevant tertiary institutions.
The Committee felt that
the target of 66 000 of social workers for the implementation of the Act
could have been unrealistic because there have been a very low numbers of
social workers graduating from the scholarship programme. The department told
the Committee that it faces the
challenge of the high dropout and
failure rate. In the past students were forced to drop out when they had failed
because the department would withdraw the bursary. To resolve this challenge,
the department made a decision to extend the scholarship by a year when a
student had failed. Another challenge has been that universities have a
specific number of student intake.
The Committee advised the department to look at
alternatives that will address this challenge. One option is for the department
to explore the possibility of developing social auxiliary workers through
programmes/learnerships so as to complement the work of the social workers.
·
Foodbanks are only located in urban areas. Even though
studies have shown that poverty levels have been increasing in urban areas,
poverty is still deep rooted in the rural areas.
The Committee urged the department to develop
a strategy to roll out foodbanks into rural areas and raise awareness on the
foodbanks. The department
acknowledged that foodbanks are only
based in urban areas but informed the Committee that because the foodbanks form
part of the Zero Hunger programme, it aims
to roll them out to rural areas.
·
The number of acting positions at senior management level of
the department.
It noted that this may
have an impact on the service delivery of the department. The department
reported that interviews had been conducted to fill some of the acting
positions and appointments will be made within 30 days. This excluded the
filling of the Director-General post which is the prerogative of the Minister.
·
The fact that th
e
re were
still instances where people were not able to apply for social grants because
they did not have enabling documents such as birth certificates.
This could be one of the reasons why 2
million children were reported missing in the report published by UNICEF in
collaboration with the Department of Social Development, in the social
assistance programme.
Even though the
Committee acknowledges that this is the responsibility of the Department of
Home Affairs, it feels that parents, care givers and the Department of Social
Development have a role to play to ensure that people get these documents. The Committee
is aware that applicants can use affidavits to apply for social grants but
having the enabling documents is important as they are required for many
contractual agreements.
·
The department had not tabled its report on the Victim Empowerment Programme
to Parliament as required by the Sexual Offences Act Act. The department
explained that the
report used to be submitted through the
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development but as from 2013 it will
submit its individual report.
The department
was not aware that the Act stipulated that departments should submit individual
reports to Parliament.
·
The budget reductions on
the Older Persons, Youth, Substance Abuse, NPOs sub-programmes. It felt that
these reductions could have budget implications to the funding of the NPOs. The
department explained that the reductions that were made were part of the
efficiency savings recommended by the National Treasury to all departments. The
savings were made on non core functions such as advertising, venues,
subsistence and travel.
·
The discrepancies on the
funding model to NPOs in different provinces.
The department reported that it has prioritised the evaluation and
monitoring of the NPOs. The evaluation process will look at the relationship between
the department and the NPO sector, particularly to address the issues of
funding. The department is also working on implementing the Financial Award
Policy, which stipulates for the standardisation of subsidies across provinces.
7.
Recommendations
The Committee
recommends the following
:
·
The Minister of Social Development should expand the
youth programmes to other six remaining provinces.
The programme should also be implemented at
local government level. It welcomed the departments programme which aims to empower
youth for sustainable development and social change, which it had rolled out in
three provinces.
·
The Minister should review the strategy to achieve the
target of 66 000 social worker needed for the implementation of the Childrens
Act and present it to the Committee.
The
department should provide the Committee with a detailed report on the
scholarship programme from its inception.
·
The Minister should establish mechanisms to address
challenges related to the registration, funding and capacity building of NGOs,
especially in rural areas.
·
The Minister should ensure that all vacant posts at
the senior management level are filled as a matter of urgency.
8.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL SECURITY
AGENCY (SASSA) 2013/2014 2015/16 STRATEGIC PLAN
The Committee was briefed on the
Strategic Plan of SASSA and the following was presented:
8.1
Background
The presentation highlighted some of
the key priorities SASSA set from 2011/2012-2013/2014 financial years and
progress made. They included issuing of a payment tender for social grants,
improving local offices and standardizing the processing of the grant
applications into a four step process. In its 2011/12 annual report briefing to
the PC on Social Development, SASSA had reported that 92 local offices had been
improved and grant applications in seven
provinces had been standardised on
a 4 step process. The
For 2013/14 financial year, SASSA
prioritized the linking of social grant recipients to economic opportunity. It
will continue with the priorities it had set for the 2012/2013 financial year,
which are to improve local offices, fraud management, obtaining a clean audit
report and have a staff uniform for its employees.
With regard to linking grant recipients to
economic opportunities, SASSA informed the Committee that it had initiated a
school uniform project where recipients make school uniforms for the nearby
schools. To improve its organizational efficiency, SASSA prioritized to have a
better grant management, improve its strategic partnerships and undertake an
organizational review.
SASSA reported that there were some
priorities it had set for the past two financial years (May 2011- March 2012
and May 2012 to March 2013) but it did not make any significant progress to
achieve them. These are: recruiting people with disabilities and unemployed
Child Support Grant recipients with basic qualifications, developing a
Payment Model, automating
its systems, setting a biometric system for the staff and developing a system
that will ensure customer care for the front desk officials.
9.
Priority areas for 2013/14
For 2013/14 2015/16 financial
years,
the agency set to achieve four key
priorities, namely; excellent customer care; automation of systems; improving
the organizational capacity and promoting good governance. These priorities
resonate within the agencys four key focus areas, which are:
·
improving the service delivery by
making
peoples dealings with government easier through better delivery and
coordination of services;
·
Improving
the organisational efficiency by
modernising the agencys business
processes;
·
Developing
a new payment system; and
·
Undertaking a
diversification process which will
position SASSA as payment provider for social security benefits.
9.1
Key
priority projects
SASSA
identified seven (7) key priority areas, which were reported as follows:
9.1
Implementation of the Social Assistance
Programme
The
objective of this priority project is to
improve reach to qualifying/eligible
social assistance beneficiaries. At the time of reporting, there were over
16 069 007 people
benefiting from the social grants.
The take up rates for new grants was
on an average of 1 200 000 per annum. There was an attrition rate of at least
500 000 beneficiaries per annum due to death, reviews, temporary disability and
voluntary cancellations.
For 2013/2014 financial
year, SASSA
targeted
to reach at least 1.2 million new beneficiaries and
increase the
number of grants in payment from 16 069 007 to 16 513 702.
The second
objective under this priority project is to
improve the management of Social
Relief of Distress (SRD) by ensuring that qualifying beneficiaries are not
disadvantaged. It will achieve this objective by:
·
Conducting
training and
workshops that will ensure that there is a common understanding and
interpretation of undue hardships of beneficiaries.
·
Processing 25 000
SRD applications per annum over the next three years.
·
SRD will give
priority largely
to:
o
children suffering from mal-nutrition;
o
assistance to families where the breadwinners died;
o
assistance during disaster situations; and
o
assistance to individuals awaiting for social grants.
9.2
Re-registration process
The objective of this
priority project is to e
stablish a credible National payment database through
the re-registration programme. Since the inception of the re-registration process
in 2012/2013 financial year, over 19 million people (including
procurators
) were
re-registered.
For 2013/2014, the agency
plans to do the following activities:
·
Complete the re-registration process
o
Re-register outstanding 2 million beneficiaries by April
2013. These are the
2 million children who were
reported missing from the social assistance system
;
o
Between April and May 2013, it will conduct a sweep
(mopping) across the country to ensure no one is left out from the
re-registration process; and
o
Conduct any home visits that may be outstanding.
·
Cleaning of data
o
Clean up the re-registration data, which will involve data
matching with critical institutions and elimination of duplications, and
o
Assessing and investigating the fraud patterns.
·
Records management
o
Filling of loose correspondence relating to documents
collected during the re-registration process.
9.3
Grant reviews
The
objective of this priority project is to
eliminate the backlog of grant
reviews, largely due to medical and financial assessments. At the time of
reporting there was a backlog of 2.5 million grants due for review and to be
eliminated in one year six months. To eliminate the backlog, SASSA reported
that it will carry out these activities:
·
Eliminate backlogs
o
Send notifications to
each beneficiary, through the registered mail, to comply with legislative
requirements.
o
Have dedicated
review venues (similar to the re-registration venues) to manage overcrowding at
local offices.
o
Conduct home visits
targeting older persons above the age of 75; Care Dependency Grant and Grant In
Aid beneficiaries. These will be carried over into the 2014/15 financial year,
because of the cycle time for reviews (3 month notice of review, 3 months
notice to suspend and 3 months for application for restoration).
·
Eliminate reviews
o
While reviewing the
review backlogs, the agency will also deal with the new reviews to prevent
further development of backlogs.
10.
Local Office and Service Points Improvements
The objective of this
priority project is to
improve the conditions under which SASSA serves the
beneficiaries and
to ensure that all customers experience the same business processes.
This project
started in July 2011 and it achieved the following:
92 Offices were upgraded in 2011/12.
Additional 72 were completed by end of March 2013.
All service offices had adopted a
4-step application
process.
To
further improve local offices and service points, SASSA reported that it will
undertake the following activities:
Complete the upgrading of local offices in 2015. The
target for 2013 is to have 119 facilities upgraded
to suit the new standardised
application process.
Fully capacitate the service offices
(HR, ICT and vehicles).
Improve accessibility of SASSA services and offices.
11.
Organisational review
The objective of this
project is
to make SASSA more effective through increased operational efficiency
and the creation of a more streamlined and effective organisational
structure. This will be done to address the duplications of
functions between the
head office, regional offices and the district offices.
Each branch
office conducted a preliminary diagnosis and micro-audit of their functional
areas and had made proposals on the possible areas for possible change. For the
2013/2014 financial year, SASSA will appoint an independent consultant
to work with it to review
the proposals and ensure that proposals are aligned to the vision of the agency
and ensure optimum utilisation of staff. SASSA will consult with the l
abour union
throughout this process.
12.
Future Payment Systems
The objective of this project priority is for SASSA to
implement its full mandate of administering, managing and paying social grants.
At the time of reporting SASSA had finalized the
establishment of a National Payment
Database. The
SASSA card had transformed the industry by ensuring that more people
who were previously unbanked were integrated into the mainstream economy. To
further achieve this objective, SASSA planned to undertake the following
activities:
·
Establishing an Advisory Committee to support SASSA investigating future
payment options.
The committee will report to the Minister twice a year.
Host an international round table workshop on payment
systems in the 3
rd
quarter of the year.
13.
Organisational efficiency
Under this priority project, SASSA will update personal files by
conducting a file audit; ensure that all its governance structures are
functional; develop an organisation-wide Risk Register; develop b
iometric system for access
to SASSA core business systems; strengthen SASSAs internal capacity to drive
ICT operations that are required for day to day operations of the agency;
improve turn around for payment providers; improve the grant debtors management
and eliminate austerity measures in so far as it impacts on service delivery.
It
reported that it was found that some
austerity measures were found to be too restrictive. For example
travelling restrictions that had specified the kilometres officials were
allowed to travel a day proved to be not feasible in rural areas where
officials have to travel vast areas.
14.
Other
initiatives to be addressed by SASSA
In addition to the key priority projects discussed above, SASSA set the
following initiatives as priority areas for 2013/14:
Tackling the intergenerational
poverty by linking social assistance recipients of working age to developmental
and/or economic opportunities;
Intensifying the outreach programmes to communities
with the objective to reach those beneficiaries who are unable to reach SASSA
offices and ensure that potential and current beneficiaries are fully informed
of the programmes and initiative of SASSA;
Exploring measures to build SASSAs
future workforce by:
o
establishing
partnerships with institutions of higher learning to develop degrees and
diplomas that incorporate social security in their curriculum;
o
Giving bursaries to
get people into work opportunities through training and education in the field
of social security.
o
Conducting research to ensure that the missing children in
the social assistance programmes are located. The take up rates for children
between 0-1 was at 36% and 45% for children between 16 and 17 years.
The agency
also plans to strengthen partnerships for SASSA by forging partnership with the
international
structures, such as the
International Social Security Association
(ISSA).
It will also participate in the
South Africa-European Union dialogue
facility. Locally, it will forge partnerships with the following departments:
o
Department of Education for the
analysis and
matching of children in the education system versus those receiving the Child
Support Grant (CSG) and the Foster Care Grant (FCG);
o
Province - for
analysis and
matching of children in registered ECD centres versus those receiving the CSG
and the FCG; and
o
Department of Health
for co-location
for early registration of children in the SRD to improve nutrition of children.
15.
Financial Plan for 2013/14-2015/16
The SASSA
administration budget allocation for 2013/2014 financial year is R6 .5 billion.
Over the MTEF period the budget allocation for compensation of employees will
increase by 11.69%; goods and services by 2.03% and transfers and subsidies by
11.69%.
The
increase in the budget allocation for compensation of employees covers for
current posts and critical additional posts, in particular level 5-8 posts at
the regions and recruitment of sufficient and appropriately skilled human
capital for improved and more efficient service delivery.
Over
the MTEF period the budget appropriation of SASSA will grow by 3%, 4% and 4%
respectively. The National Treasury reduced the SASSAs 2013/14 baseline budget
by R215, 324 million, from R6, 5311, 88 billion to R6, 315,864 billion. It was
reported that the reduced appropriation will have a negative impact on SASSAs
budget and will necessitate for trade-offs and reprioritisation.
In
responding to the National Treasurys requirement for departments to have 1% to
3% savings from their baseline budget, SASSA reported that for 2013/2014
financial year it incorporated reductions of R65 million, R137 million for
2014/2015 and R215 million for 2015/2016 financial years.
For 2013/2014 financial year, R100 million
reduction was made for reprioritisation towards absorption of social work
graduates and R4. 8 million
for the Fraud Hotline to Public
Service Commission (PSC).
In addition,
the
awarding
of the new five year payment contract to the service provider, Cash Paymaster
Services reduced the cost per grant by R16.50. This assisted in realising
savings on the payment of social grants expenditure item.
16.
Challenges
SASSA
reported that it still faces challenges pertaining to the policy
implementation, particularly delays in the processing and finalisation of court
orders for FCG and the interpretation of undue hardships which qualifies an
applicant to receive SRD. Another challenge is to locate and pay CSG to 2
million children who were reported missing in the social assistance system.
With regard to improving the SASSA local offices and pay points, it was
reported that there were offices, particularly in rural areas, where the
infrastructure is in unacceptable conditions and therefore improvements will be
impossible to make.
Another challenge related to issues of processes and operational
efficiencies. Thus far SASSA has partial standardisation of business processes
in different local offices. Offices had different business models and this has
resulted in
inequitable distribution of resources, particularly at points of service
delivery. The agency is still faced with the challenge of
social grant fraud and
high
labour relations cases.
17.
Deliberations
During the deliberations session,
the Committee raised the fact that some retail stores that make social grant
payments do not have the biometric readers.
SASSA explained that the full roll out of the biometric system to the
retail sector was
extended to July 2013 because of the extension
made to the re-registration process until 30 April 2013. However, Checkers
stores have biometric readers. Payments at Pick n Pay, Mass Mart stores and at
banks are still pin based. Nevertheless, the agency acknowledged that the risk
of theft of cards and pin numbers will always be a challenge. So it will to
constantly upgrade its security systems, including finalising the roll out of
the biometric system for its officials.
Responding
to the question on the amount of grant debtors per region, SASSA submitted the
following table which shows a total debt breakdown per region:
Total balances per regions for
end of march 2013
|
|||
|
|
|
|
Region
|
SOCPEN (Rs)
|
BAS (Rs)
|
|
|
86 475.27
|
22 301 601.30
|
|
|
1 016 146.45
|
10 594 900.67
|
|
|
6 056 300.98
|
12 954 567.04
|
|
KwaZulu -
|
58 884 647.84
|
41 422 963.09
|
|
Lipompo
|
284 162.65
|
3 103 314.27
|
|
|
326 693.19
|
2 497 780.81
|
|
|
243 552.48
|
1 969 658.75
|
|
|
79 679.00
|
8 743 316.03
|
|
|
2 053 735.46
|
1 834 946.02
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Write - Offs 11/12 totalled
R8 057 044. 01
|
Write - Offs 12/13 totalled
R6 079 076. 44
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
With regard to the question on what SASSA and the Department of Social
Development were doing to address the challenges around the delays in the
processing of the court orders for Foster Care, SASSA reported that a task team
was set up by the department to address these challenges. SASSA contributed to
the work of the task team by identifying orders that had lapsed. R100 million
was budgeted for social workers who will be employed to work specifically on
foster care cases, these will include retired and new graduates social
workers.
In responding to the question on the composition of the Advisory
Committee, SASSA explained that the committee will comprise of representatives
from the children organisations, International Social Security Association
(ISSA), ICT sector, social reforms experts and the payment system unit from the
South African Reserve Bank.
In relation to the question raised on the agencys staff compliment, it
was reported that the agency has 8 496 staff including contract workers
and 1 384 Expanded Public Work Programme (EPWP) practitioners.
For 2013/2014 financial year, extra 600 EPWP
practitioners will be placed in the regional offices.
To the question on the number of local offices to be
upgraded in 2013/2014 financial year, SASSA reported as follows:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
18.
Recommendations
The Committee recommends the
following:
·
The
implementation of the biometric system to SASSA officials should be prioritized
because a number of SASSA officials had been found guilty of defrauding the
social grant system.
·
SASSA
should resolve the issue of dormant accounts, and grants payment paid to
beneficiaries who had passed away and other irregularities pertaining to social
grant payments.
·
SASSA
should strengthen security at the pay points.
19.
THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (NDA) 2012 2017 STRATEGIC PLAN AND THE
BUDGET VOTE
19.1
Introduction
The National Development
Agency (NDA or agency) is a Schedule 3 (A) Public Entity
established
in terms of
Section 2 of the
National Development Agency Act (108 of
1998)
and reports to the Parliament of the
The NDA in its 2012/2017
Strategic Plan undertakes to contribute towards the achievement of the
following outcomes:
·
Early Childhood
Development;
·
Food Security;
·
Income Generation
(Programmes and Projects); and
·
19.2
Legislative Mandate of the NDA
The NDAs two-fold
legislative mandate, consisting of a primary and a secondary mandate, is in the
main to contribute towards the eradication of poverty and its causes. This is
achieved through the granting of funds to civil society organisations (CSOs) to
enable them to implement development projects in poor communities. The NDA is
also charged with strengthening the institutional capacity of other civil society
organisations which provide services to poor communities.
Primary
mandate
The NDAs primary mandate is to
contribute towards the eradication of poverty and its causes by granting funds
to civil society organisations for the purpose of carrying out projects or
programmes aimed at meeting development needs of poor communities and
strengthening the institutional capacity of civil society organisation involved
in direct service provision to poor communities.
Secondary
mandate
The NDA secondary mandate of the NDA
is to promote consultation, dialogue and sharing of development experience
between civil society organisations and relevant organs of state; debate on
development policy; and undertake research and publications aimed at providing
the basis for development.
19.3
Situational analysis
The National Development Plan (NDP)
identified poverty as still a pervasive challenge in
·
Early Childhood Development
·
Food security income generation programmes and
projects
·
Capacity building of CSOs
20.
NDA STRATEGIC GOAL AND OBJECTIVES FOR 2013/14
The main strategic goal of the NDA
is
to leverage strategic partnerships so as to eradicate
poverty and enable poor communities to achieve sustainable livelihood. The
purpose of this goal is to improve the quality of life of the poor with the aim
to foster self reliance. To achieve this strategic goal, the agency set the
following strategic objectives:
Strategic
objective 1
- to carry out projects and programmes aimed at
meeting the development needs of poor communities.
Strategic
objective 2
- to undertake research and publications aimed
at providing the basis for development policy.
Strategic
objective 3
- to strengthen the institutional capacity of
civil society
organisations.
Strategic
objective 4
- to promote and maintain organisational
excellence
and sustainability.
Strategic
objective 5-
to promote debate, dialogue and sharing of
development experience.
20.1
Outputs of the strategic objectives
The implementation of the strategic
objectives will ensure that the NDA achieves the following outputs:
20.1.1
Capacity building
The entity acknowledges the
potentially significant role that the NGOs can play in strengthening community
building and cohesion envisaged in the National Developmental Plan.
The
NDA capacity building approach
provides the Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and the
Civil Society
Organisations (
CSOs) with the necessary resources, both financial and
material, to ensure successful project implementation. The
elements of CSO capacity building
interventions include the following activities:
·
Needs assessment and baseline information for CSOs
·
Small grant support
·
Incubation and support
·
Training and mentorship
·
Monitoring and Evaluation
·
Information, education, communication and marketing
·
Research and policy
20.1.2
Grant funding
20.1.2.1
Early Childhood Development
In terms of maximising the potential
of the ECD, government will focus on resourcing infrastructure, curriculum
development, and ensuring compliance with the norms and standards at the ECD
sites. The NDA will underpin this through interventions that support food
security at ECD sites, work towards strengthening the institutional, leadership
and management capacity of ECD sites and improve the infrastructure of the ECD
sites. The NDA reported that it will make limited infrastructure investment as
part of a holistic approach to improving access to provision of quality ECD
education.
20.1.2.2
Food Security
In addressing food security
challenges in
-
Partnering with organisations engaged in
food security activities to ensure resource sharing and collaboration;
-
Capacity development by skilling people
to effectively use the land for food production;
-
Research by continuously monitoring the
food security status; and
-
Policy development, lobbying and
advocacy.
20.1.2.3
Income
Generation Programmes and Projects
The NDAs focus on income generation is linked to one of the strategic
priority areas of the government to create decent work and sustainable
livelihoods.
Therefore its
development of sustainable income generation
initiatives will include, amongst others, resourcing of innovative programmes
and projects that are sustainable. It will also empower women and young people
economically through skills acquisition to enable them to initiate and manage
various trades and economic opportunities.
21.
Programmes
21.1
Programme 1: Development Management
Strategic
The strategic objective of this
programme is to carry out projects or programmes aimed at meeting the
development needs of the poor.
The entity aims to spend R60 million
in order to fund 65 projects and programmes funded on ECD, food security and
income generation.
These projects will
benefit 5 784 people.
The R60 million
allocated to this project is divided as follows, R18 million will fund ECD
programmes, R18 million for food security and R24 million for income generation
programmes. A number of 3 095 children will be enrolled in ECD funded sites and
20 receiving core funding from the entity and 15 ECD sites will be funded for
infrastructure improvement.
In terms of food security, the
agency reported that about 2 340 beneficiaries will benefit from the food
security programmes and through the number of jobs created through the income generation
projects which are 348.
21.2
Programme 2: Research and Development
The strategic objective of this
programme is to undertake research, monitoring and evaluation and knowledge
management publications on the NDA.
A
number of 183 NDA implemented projects will be monitored and evaluated during
the 2013/14 financial year. The agency anticipates producing nine (9) research
publications on the NDA programmes.
With regard to the monitoring and
evaluation of projects funded by the NDA, it was reported that 72 funded will
be evaluated. Six case studies will be produced from the monitoring and
evaluation of the NDA programme areas. Three (3) research reports on the NDA
focus areas will be produced.
21.3
Programme 3: Capacity building
The strategic objective of this
programme is to strengthen the institutional capacity of CSOs and
beneficiaries.
A number of 239 civil
CSOs will be provided with capacity building interventions in CSO management
and technical skills. A total of 1 775 beneficiaries will be provided with
capacity building interventions.
Two
hundred and six (206) NDA funded ECD practitioners will be enrolled on NQF
level 4.
21.4
Programme 4: Governance and Administration
The strategic objective of this
programme is to promote and maintain organisational excellence and
sustainability.
The agency has
maintained a 5% vacancy rate against approved organisational structure since
2009.
It set a ninety five percent (95%)
target set for staff achieved a performance rating of 3 and above.
The NDA will increase the ratio of mandate
versus administration costs as percent of grant achieved and the ratio to
57:43.
The agency also plans to establish
27 advisory centres pilot sites. Three centres will be established in each
province.
The purpose of these centres
is to provide information to CSO and NPOs on information and other matter
relating to their function.
22.
Financial plan
The
NDA has been allocated a total budget of R171 713 million. The agency projected
that it will fund 65 projects and programmes. In total the ECD, Food Security
and Income Generation projects will receive a budget of R60 million. The ECD
projects will receive R18 million, Income Generation projects R24 million and
R18 million will be allocated to food security projects.
23.
Deliberations and concerns
The Committee expressed concern over
the large budget allocated to compensation of employees which represented 38%
of the total budget of the NDA.
The Committee deliberated on issues
pertaining to the funding of the NPOs, failure of NPOs to comply to norms and
standards and the NPO Act and the lack of capacity building for NPOs,
especially emerging NPOs.
The Committee
cautioned against dual funding (or double dipping) to projects funded by the
NDA, the Department of Social Development and Lotto.
The NDA
explained that it formed a partnership with Lotto in which the NDA provides
capacity building to NPOs so they can meet the requirements needed to qualify
for Lotto funding. To avoid double dipping between the funding of the NDA and the
department, the NDA explained that it works closely with the department and
they each identify different programmes they will fund.
The Committee welcomed the
establishment of the advisory centres in provinces.
It felt that these centres will play an
important role in providing support and guidance to the emerging NPOs on
managing of projects.
24.
Recommendations
The Committee recommends the
following:
·
The
Minister of Social Development should ensure that the agency prioritizes the
filling of senior vacant positions.
·
The agency should review its budget allocation and ensure
that more money is allocated to projects, which are a core mandate. The review
of the budget should also make sure that more money is allocated to projects
than to compensation of employees.
·
The
Minister should apply to the National Treasury to have the budget allocation of
the NDA increased.
The entity has a
critical role to play in poverty alleviation through its priority areas,
namely; ECD, food security, income generation and capacity building to NPOs.
-
There should be increased efforts on the part of the
NDA over the monitoring and evaluation of the funded projects.
-
The Minister should ensure that the agency strengthens
its awareness campaigns on projects it funded as well as encourage NPOs to
comply with the NPOs guidelines and Act.
Report to be considered
__________________________________________________________________
Reference
Report of the Portfolio Committee on
Social Development on the 2011/12 Annual Report of the South African Social
Security Agency (SASSA), dated 13 February 2013
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