Monday, June 18, 2012

South Africa Seeks to Curb Social Security Leakage with Biometric ID

State tightens up on social grants (IOL News)
From the beginning of June, the agency started a full re-registration of all social grant beneficiaries “on a comprehensive biometric identification system”.

Social development director general Vusi Madonsela said the number of beneficiaries who might be receiving grants fraudulently was not known.

“We can only estimate, based on international standards... that there is an estimated 10 percent leakage.
It's notoriously difficult to estimate losses due to fraud because, in any individual transactions, if the bureaucracy knew it was being defrauded, it wouldn't engage in the transaction.

This is the first time I've seen a reference to the ten percent standard global estimate. That's as good a place as any to begin a return on investment analysis.

South Africa has been very active in strengthening its ID management infrastructure.