03 Oct 2017

Department of Social Protection director, Ms Ruth Radibe says Sandulela Telecom Botswana was awarded a tender for disbursement of social benefits cash allowance to old age pensioners in Lobatse and Southern District only.

Addressing Southern District full council meeting in Kanye recently, Ms Radibe told councillors that when implementation of the Sandulela project began in September 2016, there were some dissatisfaction regarding timely service delivery and both the ministry and department engaged in a series of meetings with Sandulela to address the gaps that were identified.

She mentioned that the department designed a monitoring tool that was used during site visits to assist them improve service delivery.

“The department carries out random spot check visits to payment sites every month and departmental staff based at the district office also continue to monitor the service,’’ she said.

She said payment of beneficiaries continued to be done at the kgotla and in some merchants in the villages.

In some instances VDC houses have been rented for purposes of payments.

“Beneficiaries are paid through the usage of a smartcard produced by Sandulela Telecom Botswana,” she stated.

Ms Radibe noted that mobile trips were undertaken to take services to villages and settlements in the Southern District with the assistance of a security company.

She said the department of social protection managed the database of all the beneficiaries and produce payroll on monthly basis to guide the service provider on the list and number of beneficiaries to pay.

She also indicated that the department was in the process interfacing with the service provider system to enable viewing of payments, adding that it continued with reconciliation and production of reports on payments as and when required.

Councillors decried running out of cash at pay points, which leads the beneficiaries not to be paid on time, while sometimes some names  do not appear in the payroll.

They also complained about inconsistency in service delivery more especially paydays.

Councillors were also concerned about shortage of benches and chairs at the paying points and long queues.

In response, Ms Radibe said where there was any delay in payment by Sandulela staff they should notify the client of the delay and reasons for such a delay and arrange to reschedule the date of payment.

She said Sandulela had been served with letters of failure to comply with contract, to which Sandulela responded stating that they had improved on issues of late coming.

However, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, through department of Social Protection, has been running a tender for disbursement of social benefits cash allowance to old age pensioners, World War II Veterans, People with Disabilities and destitute persons. ENDS