More than 7 100 fraudulent social grant claims were discovered during a recent verification of more than 100 000 grants, according to Deputy Social Development Minister Maria Ntuli.
Replying to a question in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Ntuli said most of these grants had been approved on the basis of fake birth certificates or ID documents.
The Social Development Department was working with Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies to cancel all fraudulent identity certificates.
The 7 133 fraudulent claims discovered by March had been cancelled and would be traced back to the officials who entered the false information into the grants system. “If necessary, some people will be arrested,” Ntuli said.
A parliamentary written response last month said the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) had opened 21 817 cases of social grant fraud between June 2005 and last December. Of these, 17 908 had been brought to court, leading to 15 004 convictions.
Sassa, which this year will pay out R97.5 billion in social grants, has lost more than R238 million to corruption and fraud since its establishment in 2005.
Ntuli told MPs extra security steps had been introduced, including restricting after-hours access to the system and alignment with the government payroll to ensure public servants were not paid grants. – The Star