Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development

16 August 2011

Outline of the presentation• Purpose• Strategic overview• Values• Background• Strategic Priorities• Challenges facing the Agency • Agency‘s key focus areas• Recommendations

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PurposeThe purpose of this presentation is to:

present to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development a plan to address the challenges currently facing SASSA;

highlight the key projects that will be embarked upon to improve Service Delivery; and

request the committee to support the Agency in addressing the challenges.

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Strategic Overview

Mandate The mandate of the SASSA is to ensure the provision of

comprehensive social security services against vulnerability and poverty within the constitutional and legislative framework.

Vision A comprehensive social security service that assists people to be

self-sufficient and supporting those in need.

Mission To manage quality social security services, effectively and efficiently

to eligible and potential beneficiaries effectively and efficiently.

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Strategic Objective

To build a high performance institution which manifests itself by compliance to good governance principles and striving towards operational excellence through continued service delivery improvements to the beneficiaries.

Values Social cohesion Transparency Equity Integrity Confidentiality Customer Care- centered Approach

Strategic Priorities

The Reform Agenda is underpinned by the following three key priorities:

Customer care - Centred Benefits Administration and Management System;

Improved Organizational Capacity; and

Increased access to Social Security Services

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Background• SASSA is a Schedule 3A Public Entity established in

April 2006 to transform social security in South Africa.

• Since its establishment there has been a steady increase in the demand for services and subsequent increase in the workload of its staff.

• Today over 15 million South Africans of different ages are benefiting from the social assistance programme. The number of grant benefits increased from 10m in 2006 to over 15m in 2010/11

• The Agency deals with an average of at least 5 million transactions per annum, excluding payments. (No is only limited to what is processed on SOCPEN)

Background (Cont…)

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• Although the agency has generally made significant progress in many areas, it is still beset with many infrastructural, systems and service delivery challenges:

Significant growth in number of benefits had a negative impact on the administration and management of grants payment. Beneficiary to staff ratio has consistently increased

The social assistance system has remained largely manual and lacks integration;

The Agency has 60% vacancy rate - (Beneficiary to staff ratio has consistently increased);

Lack of suitable office accommodation at local level – resulting in staff being crammed in offices and beneficiaries waiting for services outside the buildings;

Challenges

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GENERAL:

There is no single SASSA business;

There is lack of standardization or uniformity at the

grass-root level. There is no corporate culture;

There are only two levels running the SASSA business,

namely levels 5 and 7 which happen not to be doing the

same thing.

Level 5 constitutes the half of SASSA staff

establishment. The other half is made up mainly of

managers;

Lack of training of level 5 staff;

Challenges (Cont…)

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GENERAL:

Conditions under which staff work violate staff

constitutional rights;

The pay point environment is swarmed by Mashonisas.

Access to pay point is thus a challenge;

Conditions around pay points need urgent

improvement;

Staff is misutilised; and

Some leased buildings are underutilized.

Challenges (Cont…

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Service Points:

The Agency has been experiencing a number of service delivery challenges which include the following:

Overcrowding at service points; Sleepovers and early arrivals at service points; Long waiting periods in waiting rooms; Repeat visits by clients; Backlogs in the processing of applications; and Lack of adequate office accommodation.

Grants Admin Challenges (Cont…)

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PAYMENT SERVICES:

A large number of the pay points do not meet the norms and standards on provision of humane basic facilities;

In some cases beneficiaries are exposed to security and health risks;

Most rural pay points require urgent infrastructural attention; and

Exploitation of beneficiaries by merchants and money lenders.

Challenges (cont…)

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Beneficiary Maintenance (Record Management)

Poor record management leading to missing files and other critical documentation;

The physical infrastructure of the registries do not meet the requirements of the OHSA;

There is a lack of adequate filing space, resulting in multiple registries which also carries a cost implication; and

There are serious capacity constraints as the registries are understaffed which only exacerbate the problem.

Challenges (cont…)

Fraud Management: The nature of SASSA business lends it to be vulnerable to a

high risk of fraud and corruption; The cost of reacting to fraud outweighs the benefits and value

for money; Fraud perpetuated by staff has become endemic in some

regions; The lack of interdepartmental collaboration, collusion of staff

and lack of required online interfaces has resulted in an environment where fraud flourishes; and

Given the perceived inability of SASSA to successfully deal with the fraud challenges has resulted in a loss of credibility.

Challenges (cont…)

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Human Capital Management

Budgetary constraints to address high staff turn over; Lack of customer centric focus and the non-adherence to

Batho Pele principles; Due to the increased demand for services some SASSA

staff are under pressure, whilst others are under utilised, which leads to low morale, high staff turnover and a general apathy; and

The reliance on contract staff in critical areas has increased due to the budgetary constraints, which in turn has increased the risk for SASSA.

Challenges (Cont…)

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• FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:

Offices are not optimally located / or not in suitable office accommodation;

Offices are not suitable for the required service delivery requirements;

The physical sizes of offices are not optimal to the requirements; and

Maintenance, cleaning and security of buildings are problematic.

Key Areas of Focus• Given these challenges, the Agency has identified the following

as key priority projects:

– Service Delivery Improvement;

– Automation of Grant Management and Administration;

– Finalisation of the Payment Tender;

– Development of future Payment System; and

– Improved Audit Report – Towards Clean audit.

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Key Areas of Focus (cont…)

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Service Delivery ImprovementIn response to service delivery challenges the Agency will embark on Service Delivery Improvements designed to achieve the following:

Standardised and coordinated services, by multi-skilled staff, to its customers;

Improvement of conditions at service points – local offices and pay points;

ensure a more customer-focused organisation; and

ensure that services are easily accessible to all citizens, particularly to its rural population.

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Recommendations

It is recommended that the Portfolio Committee support the Agency in addressing the challenges.

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