Social grants could be disrupted in 2018 owing to a lack of budget, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) has said, according to The Sowetan.
In its most recent quarterly report, submitted to the Constitutional Court, Sassa reportedly said it had asked Treasury for more money to manage the phasing out of its current service provider, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), to assist it in phasing in its new one, the SA Post Office.
Sassa reportedly said a "lack of budget might negatively impact on Sassa's ability to pilot [a new payment system] and may result in disruption of social grants payment on 1 April 2018.
The chairperson of Parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) told The Sowetan that the contract between Sassa and the Post Office should have been signed on 31 August. He said Sassa wrote to Scopa last week, shifting the deadline for the contract thrice.
"The Post Office wants the contracting done by the end of [September] for it to have time to prepare itself. If they don't we will have serious problems," Godi reportedly said.
Sassa reportedly said it had had problems with supply chain management processes that resulted in the delays in signing the contract with the Post Office. It also said there was a possibility that the Post Office could not perform all the functions required to deliver social grants.