Talks on new Sassa deal begin
PARLIAMENT: Negotiations for a new contract with Cash Paymaster Services to distribute welfare grants to more than 17 million South Africans were set to begin today, the SA Social Security Agency said yesterday.
Project manager Zodwa Mvulwani told Parliament’s watchdog public accounts committee (Scopa) that the controversial approach to CPS would entail a new contract, not an extension of the existing contract, which could be done only with the Constitutional Court’s permission.
“We are going to negotiate starting from tomorrow,” she said. “We will be negotiating with the service provider for a new contract.”
Mvulwani said Sassa would not to go the Constitutional Court to seek approval for an extension of the contract the court declared invalid years ago. It would, however, approach the court to file a supplementary report detailing Sassa’s difficulty in taking over grant payments beyond March 31, when the court’s indulgence in letting the CPS contract run ends.
The director-general of the Department of Social Development, Zane Dangor, said he expected negotiations with CPS to conclude by Friday.
He said Mvulwani would lead the negotiations in the absence of chief executive Thokozani Magwaza, who was on sick leave.
Dangor said he had invited the Treasury to send a member of staff to the talks.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s department has been thrust into a pivotal role in the grant payment debacle as the last-minute negotiations Sassa is planning will involve only one bidder.
This is against public finance management rules, and Dangor said the Treasury would be asked to make an exception for Sassa, given the urgency of the situation.
“You are allowed to deviate for one bidder, but it can be done only with the permission of the National Treasury.”
Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said Sassa had years to prepare itself to take over the grant payment function but had failed to do so, and it was clear that the emergency it faced to ensure those dependent on welfare receive their grants from April was self-made.
“It was clearly planned out to create an emergency and to hold a gun to South Africa. The critical political question is why?”