Treasury denies being part of talks on grant payment contract

THE National Treasury has denied being part of ongoing negotiations between the Social Development Department and contractor Cash Paymaster Services to renew the Net1 subsidiary’s contract to pay welfare grants and pensions payments to 17 million South Africans from April.

“Following several media enquiries, National Treasury wishes to clarify it is not part of this process,” it said yesterday.

The Treasury said upon receiving a request from the department to be part of the negotiations, it advised that the responsibility lay with the accounting officer of the department, and not the Treasury.

The SA Social Security Agency has come under scrutiny because the problematic contract it has with CPS ends this month.

No new arrangements have been finalised to pay social grants in April. The CPS contract to distribute billions of rand in monthly grants was deemed illegal by the Constitutional Court in 2014, but suspended its rule so grant payment was not interrupted.

Sassa is not ready to take over the payment function, as had been planned.

Earlier, Minister Bathabile Dlamini’s department said she held a meeting with nine provincial social development MECs, Sassa and the National Development Agency (NDA) to brief them about ongoing negotiations, which included the Treasury, on April deadlines.

The meeting recommended that the department, Sassa and the NDA embark on a nationwide public and stake- holder campaign to “allay public fear and anxiety” surrounding the payment of social grants beyond March 31, said the department.

“The meeting reiterated government’s assurance that all eligible social grants beneficiaries will receive their money on time.

“The meeting further committed itself to working with and supporting all the critical steps that Sassa outlined in the institutionalisation of the social grants payment process.”

The director-general of the Department of Social Development, Zane Dangor, this week confirmed that it is expecting the Treasury to waive procurement rules to allow the contract to go to CPS, which is the sole bidder.

The Treasury has indicated that it is not prepared to do so. – ANA