Sassa to sack officials caught bypassing biometric grant system
The agency said the latest measures form part of its efforts to ensure social grants reach only qualifying beneficiaries.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has vowed to dismiss officials found manipulating the country’s social grant system as it intensifies its crackdown on fraud and corruption.
Sassa chief executive officer Themba Matlou said officials who bypass the agency’s biometric verification system to process, verify or approve fraudulent grant applications would face disciplinary action and dismissal.
ALSO READ | What Sassa beneficiaries need to know before July payments
The agency is also planning to recover financial losses by applying for preservation orders against the Government Employees Pension Fund benefits of officials implicated in grant fraud.
“Sassa is continuing to ramp up efforts to clean up its social grants system in ensuring that all the bad apples are rooted out sooner than later,” Matlou said.
The agency said the latest measures form part of its efforts to ensure social grants reach only qualifying beneficiaries.
“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,” said Matlou.
As such, we introduced the Beneficiary Biometric Enrollment to deal with identity theft, thus ensuring that we pay social grants to deserving beneficiaries.
ALSO READ | Mayor’s Walk, Sassa and uMngeni refunds: Stories that made an impact this week
He said the agency was not only reviewing grants paid to undeserving beneficiaries but was also targeting officials who facilitated fraudulent transactions.
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, amongst other transgressions, were found to have committed these acts.
Matlou said Sassa would continue strengthening measures to protect public funds and preserve the integrity of the social grant system.
As the agency marks its 20th anniversary since its establishment in 2006, Matlou said efforts to identify and remove corrupt officials would be intensified during the current financial year.
He reiterated that Sassa remained committed to ensuring grants were paid only to deserving beneficiaries while rooting out fraud and corruption within the agency.