The government could be paying the COVID-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant to people who are not in distress, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu said on Wednesday.
Makwetu was presenting findings of an audit of COVID-19 government initiatives worth R68.9 billion. President Cyril Ramaphosa requested the audit following widespread reports of alleged irregularities.
Limited verification
Makwetu said, “There is a risk that the R350 social relief grant is being paid to people who are not in distress. The application process includes very limited verification to determine if the applicant is receiving other income and provides opportunities for people such as students or scholars older than 18 to also get access to the grant.”
He added that the databases used by SA Social Security Agency (SASSA) to check if applicants have other sources of income are not sufficient and are outdated. “Our data analytics still flagged payments to over 30,000 beneficiaries that required further investigation,” he said.
“These include payments to beneficiaries employed in government or that received other sources of income such as other social grants, government pension, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) payments and benefits from other relief funds,” Makwetu said.
UIF TERS findings
The Auditor-General also made several findings relating to the UIF temporary employer/employee relief scheme (TERS), including incorrect calculation of benefits for the initial lockdown period (27 March to 30 April). This resulted in “significant overpayments.”
The audit also flagged a “high number of payments” that need further investigation, such as “payments to people who are below the legal age of employment, deceased, working in government, receiving social grants or students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).”
Other findings include overpayments, underpayments, duplicate payments and approvals for payments made before the date of application. Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi subsequently announced that he had placed UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping on precautionary suspension pending further investigations. His Department had also suspended UIF’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer.
PPE procurement
With regard to personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement, Makwetu found that the government had procured some items at double and even five times the prescribed price.
He added, “Teams are still busy auditing the procurement processes, but are identifying matters such as suppliers not having valid tax clearance certificates, quotation and competitive bidding processes not being correctly applied, inadequate or inaccurate specifications and evaluation criteria and the incorrect application thereof, conflicts of interest, and the awarding of a contract in the health sector to a supplier with no previous history of supplying or delivering PPE.”
In overall terms, Makwetu said the government’s COVID-19 relief package has been implemented in a “weak control environment.”
“Emergency responses and quick actions are required to save lives and livelihoods, but the easing of controls and the streamlining of processes and procedures to respond to the crisis, expose the government to the risks of the misuse or abuse of public resources,” he said.