I have therefore appointed a committee to investigate the policy, delivery systems as well as the constitutional and legislative implications for the establishment of a national social security system. The committee will facilitate the drafting, adoption, monitoring and implementation of inter- provincial agreements in the areas of financial and budgetary processes, forensic accounting, information technology, management and human resource requirements, legislation and outsourcing. It will also analyse and make recommendations on the roles and responsibilities of national and provincial departments of welfare within a national framework to deliver social security benefits. The committee will be chaired by the Director-General of the Department of Welfare, Dr Leila Patel. Since the successful amalgamation of the 14 different social security systems onto one data-base earlier this year, the cleaning up of the data has begun.
Several initiatives are under way.
Firstly, data checks with ID numbers on the Population Register at Home Affairs have been conducted on a quarterly basis and have yielded outstanding results. A second aspect is the drive to re-register all social security beneficiaries in the provinces. Early indications from these pilot projects are that approximately 5 percent of beneficiaries should not be receiving grants. Thirdly we are also investigating the possibility of comparing our data tapes with those of other government departments. Fourthly, we are at the planning stage of a process that aims to review every disability grant to check whether the medical certificate is still valid.