SA Post Office can’t handle grants

Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini has ruled out signing a deal with the SA Post Office (Sapo) for all aspects of welfare grant payments next year, announcing the government would reopen the procurement process for three of four services.

Yesterday, Dlamini said Sapo fell short in three of four key functions involved in paying out grants to some 12 million recipients every month. Sassa would start another tender process on November 3 after the post office was only awarded one of the four services.

Sapo could not print the required 4.2 million beneficiary cards per year that were required, she said.

Neither could it provide a fullscale banking service that includes a disbursement account linked to a card with biometric verification data and assure that cards were compliant with all existing ATM machines.

This would force grant recipients to travel to receive their payouts and put their safety at risk, she suggested.

The SA Social Development Agency (Sassa) would, therefore, initiate a new procurement process for service providers to handle those functions Sapo cannot, she said.

The procurement process would conclude on February 28, 2018, a month before the deadline imposed by the Constitutional Court for a new contract to replace the current one with Cash Paymaster Services. – ANA