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 The Daily Sun reported today that a 29-year-old woman from Port Elizabeth found more than R3 billion deposited into her bank account by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA).

I will today be submitting parliamentary questions to Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, to determine how such an amount could erroneously be deposited into someone’s account.

This year, R111.2 billion is being distributed to over 15 million beneficiaries through the social grant system. It is imperative that this system must be above reproach.

Minister Dlamini must identify who the responsible officials are who processed and authorised the transaction. I will also be asking the minister:

• How many erroneous transactions have occurred since April 2005 when SASSA was established;
• how many of these transactions were detected by the department;
• what amount was recovered; and
• whether disciplinary steps have been taken against the officials responsible for approving and processing invalid transactions.

It is only fair to expect that a transaction of this scale would need to be approved and signed off by top management officials or trigger a system of checks and balances.

The fact that R3 billion could be paid out to a single beneficiary speaks to a serious lack of financial controls in SASSA’s   internal structures.

It is of grave concern that this kind of negligence takes place in an entity that is mandated with the fundamental task of distributing social grants and improving the wellbeing of the most vulnerable people in the country.

The CEO of SASSA, Virginia Peterson and Minister Dlamini must ensure that these funds are managed through a system with sound internal controls and validation checks so that not a cent of this money is lost through senseless carelessness or dubious activity.