Social Development BRRR

Meeting report

The Chairperson asked the Committee Secretariat to present the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR).

Ms Lindiwe Ntsabo, Committee Secretary, presented the 34-page BRRR.

"The Portfolio Committee on Social Development has reviewed the financial and non-financial performance of the Department of Social Development, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), and the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) audit report. The committee's mandate is to build an oversight process that ensures a quality process of scrutinizing and overseeing the department's actions, driven by the ideal of achieving a better quality of life for all South Africans.

The Committee welcomed the clean audit outcome received by DSD and NDA, highlighting improvements in financial years from 2019/2020 to 2022/2023. However, concerns were raised about repeat audit findings, such as inadequate oversight, slow management response, ineligible beneficiaries, and invalid lease contracts. AGSA reported improvements, particularly on newly onboarded social grant beneficiaries.

The DSD 2022/23 adjustment budget was R247 854 892 billion, but it spent 97.53% of it, resulting in an underspending of R6.133 billion. The Social Relief of Distress Grant saved R4.308 billion, but the Department overspent by R15 billion in 2019/2020, which is yet to be approved by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts".

There followed extensive Observations and Recommendations.  The following recommendations were made by the Committee:

Department of Social Development
· The Minister of Social Development should ensure that the department strengthens its oversight over the administration and payment of social grants by ensuring that the Management Service Agreement (MSA) SASSA entered with Postbank is implemented to avoid any future payment crisis. The technical challenges that resulted in the failure of withdrawals from certain types of social grants should be eliminated as much as possible. The department should provide and present its Entity Governance and Oversight Framework to the Committee within six months after the adoption of this report by the National Assembly.
· The Minister should also make sure that the department within the 2024/2025 financial year trains all social workers on the provisions of the Social Assistance Amendment (No. 20 of 2020) and the Children’s Amendment Act (No. 17 of 2022) and their Regulations to increase the uptake of the Child Support Grant (CSG) Top Up. The department had set a target of capacitating 30% of the sector workforce in 2022/2023 and 30% in 2024/2025. However, it is important that all social workers are trained to prevent further exclusions of vulnerable children either from the Foster Child Grant or CSG Top Up.
· The Minister should also ensure that the department includes a detailed progress report on actions taken to address Material Irregularities (MI) in its quarterly audit action plan which it presents to the Portfolio Committee. The report should contain a full list of those implicated, status of investigations, consequence management instituted, and recovery of the funds involved.
· Linked to the aforementioned recommendation, the Minister should ensure that the department institutes investigations and consequence management over financial misconduct cases speedily to prevent those implicated from evading accountability by resigning.
· The Minister should also ensure that that the critical vacancies at senior management level are filled within the three months after this report has been adopted by the National Assembly. The department should report progress made to the Committee at the end of the six months. This is a recurring recommendation of the Committee and thus needs to be prioritized.
· The Minister should also ensure that the department includes in its quarterly financial reports analysis of projected versus actual spending on all programmes and economic classifications.

South African Social Security Agency (SASSA)
· The Minister should ensure that the department as part of its oversight strategy over the social grant administration and payment ensure that SASSA meets its target of increasing the uptake of the Child Support Grant (CSG) Top-Up. As reported in its annual report SASSA only managed to have 37 000 CSG Top-Up in payment out of the target of 191 200 for 2022/2023 financial year. For 2023/2024 financial year it had set a target of having 238 500 applications for the CSG Top Up in payment.
· The Minister should also ensure that SASSA includes a detailed progress report on actions taken to address Material Irregularities (MI) in its quarterly audit action plan which it presents to the Portfolio Committee. The report should contain a full list of those implicated, status of investigations, consequence management instituted, and recovery of the funds involved.
· Linked to the aforementioned recommendation, the Minister should ensure that SASSA institutes investigations and consequence management over financial misconduct cases speedily to prevent those implicated from evading accountability by resigning.
· The Minister should ensure that SASSA, on its quarterly actions plans it presents to the Portfolio Committee, includes outcomes of the investigation on the root causes of the audit findings.

National Development Agency (NDA)
· The Minister should ensure that the NDA fills the position of the Chief Executive Officer within three months after the adoption of this report by the National Assembly. The NDA to report progress made to the Committee at the end of the six months. This is a recurring recommendation and so it needs to be prioritized.
· The Minister should also ensure that the NDA finalizes the process of condonation of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure within the 2024/2025 financial year. The NDA should report on the progress made in its quarterly audit action plan it presents to the Committee.  

Adoption of BRRR
The Chairperson proposed the report for adoption, and the report was adopted.

Committee programme
Ms Ntsabo presented the fourth term committee programme.

The Chairperson proposed for the adoption of the report and the report was adopted.

The Committee also adopted the minutes of 13 and 20 September 2023.

The Chairperson thanked the Committee members and the meeting was adjourned.