CPS wants fee increase for extended service

CASH Paymaster Services (CPS) has asked the Constitutional Court for an order authorising it to make representations to the Treasury on a reasonable fee for its continued provision of cash payment services from April 1 to September 30.

CPS made this submission yesterday as it responded to an application by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) earlier this month for CPS to continue to provide the payment of social grants through cash withdrawal at Sassa’s designated paypoints after March 31.

Sassa’s contract with CPS was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court in 2014.

However, in March last year‚ the court extended the contract to the end of March this year after the agency failed to find a new contractor to pay social grants.

In its application‚ Sassa said it had managed to make arrangements for three of the four categories of beneficiaries of social grants to be serviced by entities other than CPS.

“In respect of the fourth category dealing with cash payments made to some 2.5 million beneficiaries‚ Sassa has been unable to procure an alternative methodology to secure timeous payments‚” Sassa said in its application for extension.

In his answering affidavit‚ CPS director Nunthakumarin Pillay said providing the services at the current price would cause CPS to incur a considerable loss over the sixmonth period. – TimesLIVE