SASSA FINANCIAL CONTROLS IMPROVING CONSISTENTLY

• Strong financial controls are bearing fruit that will enable the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to administer and distribute the social grants to millions of South African beneficiaries efficiently and effectively.
• The agency recently provided a progress report on its audit action plan to the Portfolio Committee on social development in Parliament.
• With a commitment and the will to act against irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditure, SASSA has made a marked improvement in its financial governance.

The stringent financial controls implemented by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) are gradually and consistently bearing the required fruits that will enable the agency to administer and distribute social grants to millions of its beneficiaries efficiently and effectively.

In its 2023/2024 Audit Action Plan Progress Report presented to the portfolio committee on social development in Parliament recently, SASSA portrayed an organisation that is pulling all the stops to remedy the past.

From the 2018/2019 financial year, SASSA has achieved unqualified audit outcomes, albeit with material findings from the Auditor-General South Africa.

Through collective efforts and the will to turn the tide, SASSA has experienced a sizable decline in irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure.

Through preventative strategies adopted and implemented by the agency, irregular expenditure has dropped to R1.1-million in 2024/2025 from R34.2-million in the 2023/2024 financial year.

SASSA came from an era where, in 2018/19, irregular expenditure was R1.8-billion.

This was resolved in the intervening years through condonations by the National Treasury, while the preventative strategies were implemented to avoid incurring more irregularities in the procurement of goods and services.

The interventions implemented to prevent fruitless and wasteful expenditure are notable, as there has been a decline from R134 184 in 2022/2023, to R53 001 in 2023/2024 to R22 216 in 2024/2025.

The improvement in the audit findings can be attributed to:

• Awareness and training programmes on supply chain management and procurement prescripts, as well as requested National Treasury, Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, and internal inductions.
• Consequence management against officials found to have transgressed the supply chain process.
• The pre-audit of all new procurements before being awarded to prevent entering into irregular contracts.
• Strengthened regional oversight, which supports and guides procurement processes at regional level.

SASSA Acting Chief Executive Officer Themba Matlou has highlighted the efforts put in place by officials in turning things around and restoring the integrity of the agency.

However, he acknowledged that more still needs to be done to turn SASSA into a leading global social assistance entity.

“We want to take the SASSA brand to greater heights, and the road towards that journey starts with how we manage our affairs and the public money we are entrusted with. We need to be prudent in our financial expenditure and we are steadily moving towards that,” he stressed.

Matlou emphasised that it is not all doom and gloom at SASSA, as some of the issues arising were due to external factors, but the organisation was intent on facing all challenges head on.

“SASSA serves the most vulnerable people in our society, and we will continue to take counsel from the Auditor-General, National Treasury, and the Department of Social Development at all material times in line with government efforts to eradicate hunger and implement the Sustainable Development Goals,” stressed Matlou.