Draft Report on Oversi2ht Visit to Eastern Cape Province NCOP Select Committee on Social Services -3-5 March 2003
Social Development - The Status of Social Grant Services and its link with All Pay and Cash Paymaster (Preferred Tender to Disburse Grants in Eastern Cape)
1.Introduction: The report takes into account all the information accumulated both before and during the visit to the Eastern Cape Province. It also contains information gathered and pertinent points made by members of the delegation, observers, and officials from the departments of Social Development and Home Affairs, Allpay and Cash Paymaster Services as well as impromptu responses from beneficiaries and micro-lenders.
The report attempts to summarize the inputs and make recommendations emanating from all the participants.
2.Background: Eastern Cape Provincial department of Social Development outsourced the payment of pensions to two companies, Allpay Eastern Cape and Cash Paymaster Services (CPS). Allpay focused on the western half (urban focus) of the province and CPS serviced the former Transkei region (rural focus). The decision to outsource the payment of pension to independent contractors was taken because the provincial department of Social Development acknowledged it lacked the staff and capacity to do so efficiently.
Allpay and CPS were awarded the R180million three-year contract. Both companies use a computerized system using "smartcards" which was devised for easy use and increased security purposes.
The National Department of Social Development developed social security Norms and Standards, which all provinces have to comply with. These Norms and Standards take on board the Batho Pele principles. Adherence 10 the principles meant that pensioners should not have to travel more than five kilometres to the nearest pay point; pay-points should have toilet facilities, running water, seating and shelter and no beneficiary should wait more than two hours for his or her grant to be paid.
Allpay and Cash Paymaster Services received much negative publicity in the news but especially during the months of January and February 2003, when at least four pensioners died while waiting in line to receive pension. These deaths came about despite numerous interventions by both provincial and national government to alleviate the situation in the Eastern Cape.
3.Committee's Objective: Firstly, the Select Committee on Social Services planned a follow tip oversight and monitoring visit after the NCOP visited the Eastern Cape Province in August 2002. The primary objective was to return to the province to monitor how the province was rectifying those disparities, which were observed in August 2002.
Secondly, the committee found it necessary to investigate the challenges in service delivery in the area of social grants holistically.
Lastly, the committee intended to investigate the quality of service given by the department of Home Affairs in the delivery of documentation necessary for the accessing of grants, but with particular emphasis on delivery in rural areas.
4. Delegation: Ms Jacobus -(Chairperson, Select Committee on Social Services); Ms Gouws, Ms.
Dlulane, Mr. Nogumla, Members of the Eastern Cape Standing Committee on Social
Services, Select Committee Secretary and Researcher.
4.1 Observers: Councillor in Ngqeleni, Officials from the Departments of Social
Development and Home Affairs, Journalist from SABC radio news and Black
Sash.
5. Places Visited:
·
Provincial Office of the MEC - Bisho
·
Provincial Office of MEC (Meeting with officials from Allpay and Cash Paymaster Services) -
Bisho
·
Provincial Legislature ( Standing Committee Meeting) - Bisho
·
Duncan Village (pension pay-point) - East London
·
N U 1 (pension pay-point) - Mdantsane
·
N U 15 (pension pay-point) -Mdantsane
·
Zwelitsha I (pension pay-point) - Bisho
·
Home Affairs Satellite Office Ngqeleni
·
Home Affairs Regional Office - Umtata
5.1 Session One This session was spent meeting with the MEC for Social Development and the officials of the disbursement agencies Allpay and Cash Paymaster Services, before going to the provincial legislature and meeting with the Committee on Social Services.
5.1.1 MEC: Outlined the number of beneficiaries in the provinces, implementation of new national policy directive namely increasing the age of beneficiaries, methods of payment, quality of service from the two agencies, quality of service delivery, instituting Help Desk(s at pay-points and challenges to the province. The department has agreed to three methods of payment i.e. banks, Allpay and CPS. The MEC also highlighted the vastness of the province and what negative impact this travelling distance had on the ability to deliver an efficient service.
5.1.1.2 Challenges:
·
Incomplete enrollment of beneficiaries i.e. some important personal details are missing on application forms.
·
Disjuncture in the receipt of payment cards ("smartcards") between the two agencies (CPS -immediately after enrollment and Allpay - a month later).
·
Departmental backlog in processing procurators.
·
Failure of CPS areas in forwarding lists of frail beneficiaries resulting in those beneficiaries unnecessarily standing in queues (in some cases resulting in the deaths of pensioners waiting in queues).
·
Shortage of critical staff in the department- new staff cannot be recruited due to Public Service moratorium on filling of vacancies.
·
By 1 April 2003 the department of Social Development will receive 80 laptops containing beneficiary information needed for Help Desks and 1 77 people will be needed as staff for these Help Desks.
·
Large numbers of potential beneficiaries have the incorrect documentation i.e. former Transkei and Ciskei 9999 IDs, as well as non bar-coded IDs.
·
Poor facilities at pay-points e.g. lack of ablution facilities, shelter, seating etc.
·
Pay-points frequently exceed the 1000 target per pay-point resulting in long lines.
CPS: 5.1.2 Allpay and
Since the tender was awarded in 2001 both CPS and Allpay been engaged in the implementation of the new Social Security payment system. The implementation process was systematic beginning with one city at a time e.g. AlIpay began with enrolments in East London in August 2002 and payments began in November 2002 in East London and Queenstown. They have engaged the department of Social Development continuously to ensure that the system of payments is implemented as smoothly as possible.
Both have used the Departmental Socpen system to plan and direct their service delivery but inaccuracies in the system have resulted in poor services in some areas. Because the method of enrolment and payment is computerized they have been engaged in a month long training programme utilizing community members as per the agreement with the department, to run the system. As they begin to move in new areas they take on board new recruits for training.
CPS has more geographical and infra-structural hurdles to overcome since they offer their service in primarily rural areas. The former Transkei, which is 90% rural, has an infra-structural system that is extremely neglected. CPS I perhaps been unfairly expected to provide for the physical infrastructure of the pay-points as well. In some instances having to provide tents and chair. where buildings do not exist.
AlIpay and CPS did not provide the delegation with a copy of the contract, which was signed and neither did the Department of Social Development.
5.1.3 The Eastern Cape Standing Committee on Social Service
The committee had previously held discussions with the two service providers AlIpay and CPS and was requiring the departments of Social Development and Home Affairs to give an account of progress made in service delivery of grants. The Department of Social Development covered the areas highlighted by the MEC.
The Department of Home Affairs outlined some of the challenges they experience operating without proper infrastructure and in a largely rural province.
5.2 Session Two:
The whole day was taken up with visiting various Social Grant pay-points (see list above), which stretched from East London to Bisho. The delegation spoke to the officials of AlIpay and the department of Social Development at the sites and engaged with the beneficiaries in order to better understand the mechanisms of the system. Some problem solving took place especially in the instance where a micro-lender had confiscated the Identity Document of a beneficiary on the grounds that she owed him money.
Some informal discussions were held with a group of micro-lenders who were within the precincts of the pay-point (contrary to the security requirements of the department of Social Development) to better understand how and why they lend money to beneficiaries and what systems they use to collect the debt owing.
5.3 Session Three:
The department of Home Affairs was the focus. A rural, satellite Home Affairs Office in Ngqeleni as well the regional office in Umtata was visited.
The first stop was at the Home Affairs office in Ngqeleni where the conditions observed were appalling. There were very few members of staff on duty but the office manager took time out to address the delegation. The office infrastructure, a temporary, prefab building, was derelict - with parts of the roof caving in, water marks on the walls, windows missing, doors which could not lock, no electricity, toilets not working, no fax machines or photocopy machines and generally nothing that would equip it to function as a Home Affairs office - efficiently serving the people of the Ngqeleni community. The catastrophic implication of the toilet not working was that members of staff and the public had to use the bushes outside the building to relieve themselves. The neighbour, unable to stand the smell of human excrement, cut the bushes of{ leaving all the desperate uses of the bushes exposed literally and figuratively. Clearly this is an untenable situation that needs to be rectified immediately.
The office manager reported also that they could not fulfil simple functions such as photocopying documents such as birth certificates etc. The burden for these elementary tasks became the responsibility of the clients.
The security around this facility was none existent. It was reported to the delegation that this site already had two unsolved robberies, where numerous Identity documents were stolen and never recovered. The clients were told that they had to bear the cost of replacing those stolen documents.
The manager mentioned that numerous letters had been directed to the National department of Home Affairs to alleviate the situation. A member of the NCOP in the constituency also tried intervening, without much success. Some of the regional Home Affairs officials acknowledged that they were aware of the problem but were unable to resolve it at provincial level; it needed a directive from National.
5.3.Umtata Home Affairs Regional Office
The Umtata Regional Office is one of three sub-regions in the Eastern Cape. This office co-ordinates the district offices of Butterworth, Engcobo, Lusikisiki, Mount Frere, Mount Fletcher and Umzimkulu. It was clear from discussions that the Umtata Regional office and all the other sub-regions in the Eastern Cape have to cover large distances in order to deliver services. Added to the impediment of vast travelling distances on poor and roads is the shut down of services in critical areas, the transfer of functions performed on an agency by the Department of Justice back to Home Affairs, the eviction of Home affairs officials from the premises of the Department of Justice, shortage of critical staff and the lack of suitable, secure venues to house the offices of the Home Affairs.
The Regional Office was better equipped than the satellite office. But the building was clearly not sufficient to deal with the large numbers of people requiring the service of Home Affairs. Each client service section was divided into different units and spread across the complex The delegation observed various queues of people outside exposed t( the elements as they waited their turn for to be served. The computerised environment assisted in speeding up the process of delivery, but the delegation speculated as to the conditions for the public should the weather be unfavourable since there was inadequate shelter available.
6. General ChalIenges in Service Deliverv: 6.1 Allpay and Cash Paymaster Services:
·
The equipment dealing with grants is very new, therefore some breakdowns occur, technical
backup assistance is unreliable, on the job training is needed constantly, there are insufficient
numbers of machines at some pay-points and some beneficiary are afraid to touch the
machines.
·
Inadequate resources for both disbursement companies.
·
There is none or insufficient security at pay-points.
·
Cash-in-transit heists occur. While we were in the Umtata there was a report of a heist of
grant money from the CPS disbursement agent.
·
Several pay-points, regularly used, are not registered with the department and therefore,
Allpay and CPS did not know of their existence.
·
The Department of Social Developments' SocPen Data is incorrect i.e. not all pay-points were
registered, pay-points do not reflect the correct number of beneficiaries, beneficiaries are not
linked to the correct/preferred pay-point, pay-points registered on SocPen significantly
different from actual pay -points on the ground.
·
Large disparity between the numbers of pay-points and beneficiary numbers from what had
been the initial indication from the department of Social Development..
·
Many beneficiaries are without the correct IDs.
·
Curbing and preventing migration to pay-points where beneficiaries are not registered.
6.2 Home Affairs:
·
Poorly staffed Home Affairs Offices cannot, because of small staff component and manual
information retrieval systems, cater to needs of the public resulting in repeat visits by clients.
·
Infrastructure poor (no electricity, leaking walls, window panes missing, portion of roof
missing) and ablution facilities are lacking.
·
Office equipment like faxes, photocopy machines and computers etc., does not exit at the
Home Affairs Office visited, members of the public are expected to make and pay for copies
of birth certificates, death certificates, etc.
·
There is none or insufficient security at Home Affairs Offices. The Home Affairs site visited
already had two break-ins with large numbers of IDs stolen.
·
Incorrect information of beneficiaries are registered on IDs, with regard to age, names,
addresses and even gender.
·
Almost all people in rural areas have no postal addresses - all Ids to these members come to
the Site Office closest to them, often travelling long distances. They are told to come back in
two to three months and therefore have to repeat the journey at least twice before eventually
receiving the ID.
·
Utilisation of chiefs and councillors to distribute documents sometimes led to an illegal charge
being levied to the clients.
·
Late registration of births.
6.3 Department Social Development:
·
An unusually large amount of beneficiaries are still without bar coded ID's.
·
Eastern province has a high rate of unemployment and a large percentage of older persons
therefore the reliance on social grants are subsequently high.
·
Information from the provincial grants database, SOCPEN is still inaccurate and therefore is
unreliable for both beneficiaries and the disbursement agency. E.g. pay-point codes are
missing resulting in no service at that pay-point.
·
Large numbers of critical posts are vacant both in Social Development and in Home Affairs placing additional burdens on existing staff to deliver efficiently.
·
The Department of Social Development is experiencing a backlog on the registration on
procurators - those people who collect grants on behalf of beneficiaries.
·
At some pay-points because the facilities are poor, water sellers charge for drinking water
and enterprising neighbours charge for the use of their toilets.
·
Eastern Cape Province is plagued by lawsuits from beneficiaries who were removed from the
role e.g. the class action suit in which the benefits to 40 000 disability grant recipients was
arbitrarily cancelled. From Judge Johan Froneman - "large-scale unlawful deprivation of
social grants" by "administrative stealth". From Judge Eric Leach who faced numerous
beneficiary cases - "widespread abuse of human rights"; 'administrative inefficiency"; 'public
waste of funds"
·
Help desks at pay-points are not fully functional.
·
No crowd control and insufficient security at some pay-points leading to beneficiary
intimidations from micro-lenders and others.
·
Funeral Industry brokers, some legitimate, some illegal, prey on beneficiaries.
·
Migration of beneficiaries to pay-points other than the one to which they are registered.
·
Welfare forums within communities need to be established to work closely with district
managers.
·
Large payments to beneficiaries could be the result of fraudulent activities or poor service.
·
Allpay and CPS workers need training on the Social Assistance Act and other relevant Social
Development legislation.
7. Recommendations:
7.1 Allpay and CPS
*:. AllPay, CPS and the Department of Social Development Department need, in general, to improve service to social grant beneficiaries.
*:. Both the Providers and the Department need to correct and improve available beneficiary data so that people are paid on time at the pay-point nearest to their homes.
*:. Communication with pensioners and other grant recipients is very poor and needs to be drastically improved so that beneficiaries will go to the right pay-point on the right date and at the right time. Possibly the use of radio, community newspapers, churches and other civic organizations such as social clubs can be used spread the pay-point information to beneficiaries.
*:. People need to be paid according to grant types over different pay-days. This in essence means that Child Support Grants are paid on day one; grants for the disabled are paid on day two; grants for older persons are paid on day three; etc. or permutations of the above. The impact of this division into grant types on separate days means the large numbers of people are reduced drastically.
*:. Prevention of mass migration between pay-points will help check overcrowding and chaos at pay-points. Migration of people are influenced by: movement of people from one residence to another; ignorance of pay point information dates, venues, etc.; distrust of the efficacy of the system; fear of loan sharks and other parasites.
*:. Crowd controllers, technical staff and officials need additional training to be polite, efficient and firm with restricting the access of people other than beneficiaries on the premises where grants are being disbursed.
*:. Sick beneficiaries, who venture to pay-points despite their illness, should get special attention immediately they get to pay-points. Ideally those frail beneficiaries should be listed separately and the grants should be given to them at their homes on a separate day to the rest of the beneficiaries.
*:. Elderly beneficiaries, for their own protection, should be encouraged to be accompanied by at least one trustworthy family member.
·
.~ Because members of the public still prefer to come early in the morning, the service providers should increase the number of payment units in the morning to relieve pressure.
7.2 Social Development
*:. Until the issue of private security has been sorted out, there should be visible deployment of police at pay-points.
*:. The National and Provincial Ministers of Finance should investigate the status of the micro-lenders at pension pay-points. Are they registered with SARS? ; Are they regulated? ; Are there guidelines on maximum amount of interest that may be charged to loan applicants? Etc.
*:. The National and Provincial Ministers of Safety and Security, Justice and SAPS should investigate the intimidatory actions taken by the Micro lenders against 'clients" particularly pensioners. No loan agreement is signed; no definite interest rate is charged; no receipts are given. and the beneficiary is in perpetual" debt. Persons who fail to pay up have IDs removed; smartcards removed or/ and are beaten up by "scoppas" and other vigilante types.
*:. The immediate issuing of an instruction that no unauthorised persons should be allowed on the pay-point premises and its precincts and the enforcement thereof by security personnel.
*:. Encourage new beneficiaries to enrol with Allpay or CPS prior to first payment.
*:. A Monitoring subcommittee needs to be established to make regular reports; otherwise it would appear that the department is abdicating its responsibilities.
*:. Branch managers and inspectors needed and they need to be provided with skills training.
7.3 Home Affairs::
*:. Municipalities should be approached to house the offices of the department of Home Affairs.
*:. Chiefs and councillors were identified to hand documents to people in their areas.
*:. More mobile units for remote rural areas with a possible inter-sectoral co-operation e.g. grants can be registered, births recorded, and medical attention given using shared resources between the departments of Home Affairs, Health and Social Development.
*:. Home Affairs regional officials conveyed plans for an integrated approach to service delivery through:
(a) Partnership with the department of Social Development and loca! government.
(b) The targeting of Child Support Grant registration through targeting of I 0 local municipalities with 20 magisterial districts though the Integrated Provincial Support Programme.
(c) Vital Registration Project involving department 5 of Home Affairs and Health aiming at registration of children at birth to ensure newly born babies are in possession of birth certificates and gradual elimination of late registration of children.
(d) Automation to render on the spot service of birth, marriage and death certificates.
(e) Internal departmental arrangements to fast track processing of applications for the aged.
(f) Provision of transport to officials to improve on turn-around time for applications from offices without computers.
8. Conclusion:
The delegation gained the impression that all the stakeholders in the Eastern Cape were fully aware of the extent of the difficulty to deliver effective and efficient services to beneficiaries in the Eastern Cape. For example, the provincial department of social development through the MEC and her officials were able to contextualise the problem, analyse the outcomes and make recommendations to alleviate the situation. The same was true of the department of Home Affairs and the Standing Committee on Social Services in the province.
The identification of the plight facing the Eastern Cape therefore did not add value to the alleviation of the problem. The challenge for the province was the implementation of the resolutions. To almost all of the recommendations there were obstacles which needs firstly~ meaningful ministerial intervention; secondly, financial boosting; thirdly, commitment to skills recruitment and capacity building; fourthly, stringent security measures; and lastly, urgent infra-structural upgrading.
The committee could sense from the intensity of the interaction, that everyone was concerned at the failure to deliver, however an overwhelming sense of frustration at the failure to deliver despite all the efforts was unmistakable. Officials expressed concern that they cannot implement the recruitment of staff in critical posts if there is no budget for this or there is a moratorium imposed on the filling of vacancies. Rather the situation is exacerbated and existing staff is demoralised. The end users of the system are equally frustrated at what they deem to be the failure of government to respond to their needs and government in turn, is accused of being incompetent and uncaring, and it becomes a vicious cycle of accusations and counter-accusations.
What is needed is a full-time commitment by all stakeholders and especially those who hold the purse strings to implement systematically an integrated roll-out programme where the Social Cluster as a collective delivers service to the communities in dire need. If the department of health is the only government department who has a decent facility, then the department of social development and the department of Home Affairs should have offices either on the premises or in close proximity to each other. Mothers therefore can give birth, apply for a birth certificate and register with Social Development simultaneously.
Without an integrated approach with all three spheres of government and between sectors we will continue to monitor and oversee the machinery of government at its worst and do very little to create a better life for all in need.