Pretoria - The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has announced the appointment of Cash Paymaster Services (Pty) Ltd as the new contractor for the payment of social grants.
The agency said the contract will run over a period of five years at a cost of approximately R10 billion, with the winning bidder expected to distribute grants to the value of approximately R500 billion over the same period.
Up to 21 companies submitted bids for one or more of the provinces, resulting in 128 bids for evaluation.
"These bids were subjected to rigorous evaluation and adjudication in conformity with the bid document. This entailed a functionality evaluation in assessing each bid against the criteria, short-listing and financial and preference evaluation," read a statement.
It is envisaged that SASSA will, through the contract, achieve its objective of standardising the services while allowing beneficiaries flexibility to be paid anywhere in the country.
Cash Paymaster services has been paying social grants since 2006, but it is for the first time that SASSA awards a payment contract of this nature as previously it was extended based on the provincial contracts.
"In the main, the bid outcome will achieve a realisable saving for SASSA," it said.
Over the past five years the unit costs for pension payment increased from approximately R26 in 2006/07 to R34 in 2010/2011.
In the current contract, the unit cost has been capped to R16.50 for the duration of the contract. This would bring saving of R3 billion over a contract period of five years.
