E228 710 FOR DISABLED PAID TO WRONG PEOPLE

MBABANE – It’s a sad day when non-deserving members of society benefit from monies meant for persons with disabilities.

This is according to information contained in the Auditor General’s report which was tabled in the House of Assembly yesterday.
In his findings, the acting AG Muzwandile Dlamini revealed that about E228 710 was paid to unauthorised beneficiaries.

According to the AG, in the first instance there were some individuals who were added on the beneficiaries list without approval and knowledge of the Social Workers and were paid disability grants amounting to E197 680.
The AG said the payment of the unauthorised grants violated the process of registering beneficiaries, where Social Welfare officers should complete a Disability Social Grant Registration form.

Unknown

In response, the Principal Secretary in the DPM’s Office, Khangeziwe Mabuza, concurred with the findings of the AG. The PS revealed that there were some beneficiaries of the disability grant who were unknown to the community authorities.
She said this was despite that the documents used to support the disability grants payments purported that the beneficiaries belonged to the chiefdoms who disowned them.
“Such a scenario poses a risk that fraudulent disability grants may be successfully claimed by undeserving citizens,” Mabuza told the AG.

 According to the AG, Mabuza reported that Social Welfare officers were assigned to conduct an assessment at Dvokodvweni Inkhundla and the results confirmed that a number of beneficiaries were unknown to the inkhundla counsellor and bucopho.
 The AG expressed concerns on the poor internal controls in the management of the welfare grants

“The payment system was able to accept beneficiaries straight from the communities without involving Social Welfare Officers, yet the regulations require that Social Welfare Officers should authorise eligible beneficiaries,” said the AG. Mabuza’s response was that guidelines would be developed in compliance with the policy and that the beneficiaries would be re-screened in line with regulations. The PS informed the AG that there was no evidence that was furnished to her office at the time of her report that re-screening had been made.

 The AG further stated that she reported to Mabuza that an amount of E16 507.71 was wrongfully paid as overtime allowances to two accounting officers who allegedly performed overtime duties at the Trade Fair in 2014.
 According to the AG, the audit revealed that the request for authority memorandum from the DPM’s Office to the PS in the Ministry of Public Service dated July 23, 2014 which supported their payments, differed from the original copy of the memorandum which was received by the Ministry of Public Service on July 25, 2014.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: