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Cape Town - Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) remains committed to its contract with the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) to disburse social welfare grants, said Net1 chairperson and CEO Serge Belamant.
CPS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Net 1 UEPS Technologies [JSE:NT1], was awarded the R10bn tender for a period of five years.
However, the losing bidder‚ Absa subsidiary, AllPay Consolidated Investment Holdings‚ challenged the tender award‚ alleging widespread corruption and irregularities in the tender process.
After a lengthy legal battle, the Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered Sassa to initiate a new tender process, after declaring invalid its tender to CPS.
It also indicated that there should not be any interruptions in the payments of existing grants.
Belamant said the contract distribute grants remains in full force until Sassa has completed the new process and decides to award the new tender, or for the remainder of the current five year contract if they decide not to award the new tender.
"We remain committed to provide our ten million social welfare grant recipients and Sassa", he said.
He also expressed interest in a new social grant tender. "We look forward to participating in any new tender process".
Belamant said that the group is relieved that the two-year legal battle regarding the Sassa tender has come to an end.
He added that the Court has provided guidance regarding the way forward. These include:
- Sassa has to initiate a new tender process during the next 30 days.
- The request for proposal for the new tender must contain adequate safeguards to ensure that no loss of lawful existing social grants occurs.
- The new tender must be for a period of five years and a new and independent Bid Evaluation and Bid Adjudication Committee must be appointed to evaluate and adjudicate the new tender process.
- If the new tender is not awarded, the declaration of invalidity of the current contract between Sassa and CPS will be further suspended until completion of the five-year year period for which the contract was originally awarded.
- Fin24
CPS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Net 1 UEPS Technologies [JSE:NT1], was awarded the R10bn tender for a period of five years.
However, the losing bidder‚ Absa subsidiary, AllPay Consolidated Investment Holdings‚ challenged the tender award‚ alleging widespread corruption and irregularities in the tender process.
After a lengthy legal battle, the Constitutional Court on Thursday ordered Sassa to initiate a new tender process, after declaring invalid its tender to CPS.
It also indicated that there should not be any interruptions in the payments of existing grants.
Belamant said the contract distribute grants remains in full force until Sassa has completed the new process and decides to award the new tender, or for the remainder of the current five year contract if they decide not to award the new tender.
"We remain committed to provide our ten million social welfare grant recipients and Sassa", he said.
He also expressed interest in a new social grant tender. "We look forward to participating in any new tender process".
Belamant said that the group is relieved that the two-year legal battle regarding the Sassa tender has come to an end.
He added that the Court has provided guidance regarding the way forward. These include:
- Sassa has to initiate a new tender process during the next 30 days.
- The request for proposal for the new tender must contain adequate safeguards to ensure that no loss of lawful existing social grants occurs.
- The new tender must be for a period of five years and a new and independent Bid Evaluation and Bid Adjudication Committee must be appointed to evaluate and adjudicate the new tender process.
- If the new tender is not awarded, the declaration of invalidity of the current contract between Sassa and CPS will be further suspended until completion of the five-year year period for which the contract was originally awarded.
- Fin24
