Social Development
- (a) What are his Department’s qualifying criteria for granting funding to NGOs, (b) how does his Department ensure that the funding is used for what it was intended and (c) since 2014, (i) how many organisations have been found guilty of fraud, corruption or the misuse of funds and (ii) how much money has his Department lost to fraud, corruption or the misuse of funds;
- whether any organisations have received funding from his Department without meeting the qualifying criteria; if so, what are the relevant details;
- (a) under which circumstances will his Department grant funding to non-qualifying organisations or NPOs and (b) since 2014, how much funding has been granted to organisations that did not meet the qualifying criteria;
- (a) how often does his Department conduct oversight of funded organisations and (b) what are the reasons for his Department not monitoring funded organisations?
- (a) The Department’s qualifying criteria for granting funding to NPOs include:
- registration as an NPO in accordance with the NPO Act;
- legislative compliance with the relevant legislation including the Children’s Act;
- compliance with the Public Finance Management Act, including proof of financial governance and effective financial systems;
- Financial Statements audited by an Auditor or registered bookkeeper; and
- Performance compliance if funded before by the Department.
(b) The Department ensures that the funding is used for what it was intended through targets, funding allocations and outcomes which are agreed to in the Transfer Payments Agreement (TPAs) between the Department and NPO. This is monitored on a quarterly basis by submitting progress reports and non-financial data, the analysis of Audit Financial Statements, random verification by Internal Control, the AG and Monitoring of NPOs on site by Monitoring and Evaluation (M & E) officials and Social Workers. TPAs are very specific in what the funding can be used for. These contractual obligations are monitored as part of the assessment process.
(c) (i) Since 2014, one NPO was found guilty of misuse of funds and a further 3 cases are under investigation by Forensic Unit in the Department of the Premier (ii) R800 000 has been lost due to misuse.
- All NPOs met the funding criteria at the time of assessment and non-qualifying NPOs do not receive funding directly. Please see (3) (a) for further details.
- (a) All funded NPOs met the funding criteria. The Department does not provide funding directly to non-qualifying NPOs. Non-qualifying emerging NPOs are mentored by an established NPO who will support the NPO in meeting funding criteria within a specified time period. The mentoring NPO will provide capacity building and manage the funding until the non-qualifying NPO complies to operate independently. (b) Non-qualifying NPOs have not received funding directly.
- (a) Each programme has a yearly monitoring plan to do onsite visits to NPOs. Larger Programmes have a 3-year M & E plan to ensure monitoring takes place at all NPOs. Desktop monitoring is done with all 2100 NPOs on a quarterly basis with regards to funding, non-financial data verification and compliance assessment. All 2100 NPOs are also monitored and analysed yearly with regards to their Audit Financial Statements.
(b) Assessments and monitoring are done with all NPOs yearly by means of the processes mentioned above.
