SCOPA

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SCOPA

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Title: SCOPA

1
SCOPA

PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HOUSING

23 August 2006
2
Purpose and structure of the presentation

Purpose to inform the meeting of the progress
that has been made with enhancing the systems,
procedures and investigations in the matters
raised as irregularities on the HSS.

Structure of the presentation
Progress on matters raised by the AG Report -
National Department of Housing
Additional matters raised by SCOPA
Provincial progress reports.

3
Matters raised by the Auditor Generals Report

Subsidy approvals to government employees earning
salaries in excess of the housing subsidy
threshold
Subsidy approvals after the applicants date of
death
Approval of more than one housing subsidy for a
specific applicant or spouse
Subsidy approvals to applicants under the age of
21
Subsidies awarded to individuals receiving
monthly payments from the Government Employee
Pension Fund
Subsidy approvals to applicants with invalid ID
numbers
Duplicate subsidy approvals for a specific
property
The administration of subsidy application forms
Manual overrides of the Housing Subsidy System in
the approval of housing subsidies
Approved housing subsidies not listed on the
National Housing Subsidy Database

4
Subsidy approvals to government employees earning
salaries in excess of the housing subsidy
threshold

System
Extended search process against UIF and PERSAL
Principle approval to search against SARS
Data
Obtain latest UIF dataset on 2 August, completed
process and imported records (141 million) on
NHADB Gateway
Obtained latest PERSAL dataset on 11 August, and
import the 1.2 million records on NHADB Gateway

Testing as enhance HSS is rolled out in August
2006
Submit ID numbers for search against UIF and
PERSAL datasets
Verify search results
Based on outcome of search results implement
changes
Live Link
August 2006

5
Accompanying actions

Draft checking list to be provided to PHD's to
verify applications forms for correctness and
completeness
Copies of application forms for various
programmes
Identify additional requirements

System
Message on HSS Income screen requesting data
capturer to confirm that income details captured
is the same as the information provided on
application form
With next release of HSS November 2006
Have met with SARS to get agreement to also
search against their data in process to finalise
the MOU and letter.

6
Subsidy approvals after the applicants date of
death

System
Confirm the interpretation of error message
received from Population register on the HSS
Will be confirmed during testing of extended
search process (rolled out in August 2006)

7
Approval of more than one housing subsidy for a
specific applicant or spouse

Process
Change the weekly upload process of approved
application to the NHSDB to daily.
Uploads are done on a daily basis
Finalise with PHD's additional measures that can
be built in to the HSS e.g. certain overwrites
require confirmation from two role players on a
PHD level,
and certain overwrites can only be approved by an
identified role player
At next HSS Quarterly Steering Committee Meeting
Based on recommendations from PHDs the HSS will
be enhanced
Planned release November 2006

System
Remove the functionality on the HSS that enable
PHD's to manually changes the status of an
applicant
PHD will not be able to changes status of
applicant manually
Enhanced HSS to be rolled out from 4 August 2006

8
Subsidy approvals to applicants under the age of
21

Policy
Clarify issue to all provinces re- approval of
applicants under 21 yrs of age
Inputs from Programme Management
Action List 11 July 2006
Clarify and validate calculation of age on HSS
rounding up or down
The HSS was enhanced to calculate the age of an
applicant taking in account the birth month as
well. This functionality will be available in the
next roll out that is taking place from 4 August
2006.

9
Subsidies awarded to individuals receiving
monthly payments from the Government Employee
Pension Fund

System
Extended Search programme was developed and in
process of being rolled out
Engaged with GEPF and authorization was obtained
Provided GEPF with data requirement
In process to confirm data exchange process
Release with next release of HSS November 2006

10
Subsidy approvals to applicants with invalid ID
numbers

Verify that the import filter do not allow
Invalid id's to be imported
In process to redevelop import and export
functionality
Taking in account that information from older
version cannot be imported
Development to be completed by September 2006

System
Perform tests to ensure that the various capture
modules used in the operational environment to
capture applications does not allow invalid ID's
In process to verify capture module
Taking in account that older version of capture
module and capture modules developed by various
role players is still utilized
Verification to be completed by September 2006

11
Duplicate subsidy approvals for a specific
property

System
Ensure that HSS does not allow duplicate stand
numbers per project
HSS was enhanced and the new release will not
allow duplicate stand numbers within a project.
Roll out commence on 4 August 2006

Process
Quarterly HSS Steering Committee Meeting agree
on process to ensure that the correct stand
numbers is assigned to a specific property.
Closure of projects to confirm that all transfers
have taken place and that no duplicate stands
were allocated
Identify projects that can be closed off, report
available on HSS Online
Deeds report available to assist with process

12
The administration of subsidy application forms

Process
Investigate a filing system for application forms
- scanning of application forms, linkage to
corresponding record on HSS, retrieval of
application form for verification
Met with a few provinces to do an assessment of
the current situation
Developed a questionnaire for provinces to
complete.
Questionnaire has been mailed to the address list
of the people attended the last JSC
First draft of a proposed system to be submitted
during September 2006 JSC.

13
Manual overrides of the Housing Subsidy System in
the approval of housing subsidies

Process
Centralized the registration and updating of HSS
User rights and profiles
Process to establish a Virtual Private network
To be implemented by November 2006
Revisit existing application form for access and
rights on the HSS.
Redevelop existing form and distributed to PHDs
Submit information on current users and their
profiles to PHDs for verification
Quarterly revision of User profiles

NDoH to ensure continuous analysis of reports
relating to the use of this functionality and
monitor its usage
Various indicators were developed and will be run
against the provincial HSS Databases on a
quarterly basis
Reports to be distributed to PHDs
First release August 2006
Automate the exception report currently available
to ensure that role players identified by PHD's
receive the report via email
Exception report available on HSS Online
Automate report to be mailed August 2006
PHDs to identify person to receive report

14
Approved housing subsidies not listed on the
National Housing

Process
Ensured that the identified cases are uploaded to
the NHSDB and we are in the process to determine
any shortcomings by
Upload of approved beneficiaries from the HSS to
NHSDB now done daily and
Monitor records declined during upload process
Use the enhanced HSS as from August 2006 to
provide reports monthly

System
NHADB Gateway (implemented August 2006) will
provide the functionality to monitor the number
of approved beneficiaries uploaded to the NHSDB
as well as reasons for declining
Develop Upload functionality
Reports on records uploaded and declined
November 2006

15
Additional matters raised by SCOPA

The status of availability of skills and capacity
in the National and provincial departments of
housing especially with regard to the functions
audited
Capacity to setup proper systems and procedure
within provinces to operate better?
Training / Capacity Building conducted by the
National Department with regard to
Municipalities?
DORA funding for capacity building
Improvement on National Policy implementation
To render better support and alignment to
provinces?
Loopholes in the subsidy administration and
payment processes
Systems and means provided to the provinces to
operate properly?
Monitoring systems deployed by National
Department of Housing in order to monitor
expenditure, delivery (performance) patterns
Progress through the JSC

16
Discussion and challenges

The foundation for policy implementation remains
the National Housing Code and the Department is
enhancing the Code with guidelines and
interpretation notes
Provinces remain the decision-making authority
regarding National Housing Programmes
The HSS has been designed to provide warning
signals when policy rules are not followed and
now is building on required fields to be captured
before payment is made in accordance to the
alignment between the HSS and BAS
DORA required the HSS as a compulsory system from
2003, after the first audit by PWC and Gabodo on
the systems and onwards
A system that accommodated all provincial
requirements inline with policy
The HSS must accommodate flexibility for all
different instruments and policies
There are procedures for a controlled and
auditable overriding authority

17
continue

Capacity
Provinces have own teams of approximately 350
users for beneficiary, claims and payment,
project and budget management, trained systems
administrators.
National provide support to the provinces in
terms usage of the system
(2 dedicated and trained resources to assist
users with the usage of the systems and to
provide data quality services (alignment of HSS
and BAS), updating of project progress
information),
additionally the department has a service level
agreement with SITA to provide the services of
4 system developers,
1 mainframe programmer,
2 database administrators,
3 report developers,
a business process specialist,
systems engineer,
a scheduled training programme makes provision
of 10 days HSS related training per month
coordinated nationally with the option that
provinces can request specific training on the
basis of provincial need
Continuous and complete uploading of provincial
data and assistance with data capture
Data audit in 2005 and implemented a quarterly
technical and data assessment
The HSS was initially only designed as a
verification instrument to determine if a
applicant qualifies for a housing subsidy, later
developed into an administrative system to
support the housing subsidy scheme through the
management of subsidies, reporting system and now
enhanced with monitoring capabilities
The JSC meet on a monthly basis and set targets
for finalising the process of investigation

18
Assessment of the HSS Environment
19
HUiMS, - business information reporting
20
Exception reports
21
Pre 2006 Enhancements on the HSS
Type Functionality
Web Based Search Module Execute search process against Deeds, Population and NHSDB via HSS Online - Web Base application
Web Based Search Module Add additional information from NHSDB search - Site and Project details
Claims Module Detail and Summary Payment Report - Requested by GP to provide overview of payments against a specific project
Claims Module Functionality to add all outstanding beneficiaries that were never claimed for
Claims Module Functionality to select from a list the document required to process claim against a specific beneficiary
Claims Module Functionality to sort on most of available fields
Claims Module Enhance reconciliation functionality - Add new recon, view last recon and add receipt number
22
Pre 2006 Enhancements on the HSS
Type Functionality
Tranche Module Developed Tranche module templates to setup various milestones per Tranche and to track progress on sub milestones
Project Module Project Facets - Extend national expenditure priorities
Project Module Project Facets - Functionality to add additional subsidy item to a project or calculate allocation per beneficiary linked to project
Applicant Module Warning if dependant is already linked to an other beneficiary
Applicant Module Popup that indicate number of units still available on a project when capturing applications
Applicant Module Functionality to add subsidy items e.g. Aged and disability
Applicant Module Batch Processing Applications - Register a batch of application forms received and track progress of application per batch
23
2006 Enhancements
Type Functionality
Tranche Redemption Module Provide functionality to capture claims against Sub Milestones related to specific Tranche milestone as proof is submitted by municipalities to PHD
Web Based Search Module Extended Searches - Functionality to search against UIF and PERSAL
Web Based Search Module Repetitive use of dependants - Functionality to search dependants Id numbers against Population Register
Web Reporting HSS Online - Enhanced to provide the functionality to select a combination of parameters for a report
Web Reporting Web reports can now be printed directly from HSS
Applicant Module Age Calculation - Enhanced age calculation to include month and day
Applicant Module Birth date is now calculated from ID -assumption that a person with an ID Number starting with 95 to 99 is born in 1895 -1899 and 00 94 is born in 1900 1994
Applicant Module Spouse Birth date required for all spouses.
Applicant Module Batch Processing Applications -change the batch to which a application was added during capturing
Applicant Module Status of applicant can now only be changed based on system processes and system administrator cannot change status front end
Applicant Module Validation on spouse details when applicant is married
24
2006 Enhancements
Type Functionality
Applicant Module .. (Continue) Validation on Dependant ID Nos. Check for duplicate Id on Applicants, Spouses and Dependants. A note gets added when Duplicate Dependant warning is ignored.
Project Module Contract History - PHD can capture the details of addendums to existing contract
Project Module Edit Site details - Townships now list in alphabetical order
Project Module Pre-Approval List added a default date to field Meeting Date
Project Module No duplicate site numbers will be allowed in project
Project Module Add additional project progress milestones
NHADB Gateway Contains UIF and PERSAL Datasets and facilitate search process also keep record of the various statuses of a beneficiary
HSS BAS Interface Provide link between HSS and BAS for payments of approved claims
Planning Templates Provide PHD's with the ability to update strategic planning templates
Enhanced Budget Module Enhanced based on various request received
HSS Master Database Enhanced master database structure
Entegra Installation of Entegra to keep audit trail on changes made to records on HSS Database
25
2006 / 07 and planned
Type Functionality
VPN Centralized the registration and updating of HSS User rights and profiles
Web Based Search Module Extend search module to make provision for searches against GEPF and regular checks against the SARS database.
Web Based Search Module Overwrites require confirmation from two role players on a PHD level, certain overwrites can only be approved by an identified role player
Claims Module Phased approach - link beneficiaries to project only at the transfer stage
HSS Workflow Implementation of work flow to assist PHD's to capture information required (based on required fields) for reporting project progress, to make claims and to make a payment.
National Demand Data base Linking the HSS with the Housing Waiting lists at local authority level through the National Housing Demand Database
26
Policy Interpretations on
27
Under aged beneficiaries

The qualification criteria for participation to
the Housing Subsidy Scheme are not based on age.
However, it requires a person to be competent to
contract. Generally, 21 years of age and having
a sound mind is regarded as the only criteria in
order to be competent to contract.
However, a person younger than 21 years of age
and is of sound mind, becomes competent to
contract should he or she marry. This competency
will remain valid even if such a person should
divorce his or her partner before reaching the
age of 21 years. A court of law may also declare
a person competent to contract.

28
Applicants who have previously benefited

The qualification criteria for participation to
the Housing Subsidy Scheme determines that
neither the applicant nor his or spouse may have
previously benefited from the subsidy scheme. As
a result, a person who have benefited in the
past, divorced his or partner and remarried a
partner who has not previously benefited, both
the parties of the second marriage will be
disqualified.
It is noted a persons eligibility to participate
for a second time to the subsidy scheme in the
case of a divorce, subject to the terms of the
divorce order. In such a case the person would
not have derived any benefits from the
termination of the marriage in respect of the
residential property.

29
Administration of subsidy applications after an
applicant had died

The determining factor will be the date of death
in relation with the date on which the subsidy is
approved. Should an applicant (not the spouse)
passes away after the property has been
transferred the property will form part of the
deceased persons estate and must be administered
in terms of the relevant legislation.
Should an applicant (not the spouse) pass away
before the property has been transferred, the
status of the applicants household will be the
determining factor. If the spouse has a
financial dependant, the qualification criterion
will still be met and the subsidy should be made
available to the spouse. This will not apply in
the case of disabled persons. However, if there
is no spouse/financial dependants, the subsidy
approval must be withdrawn.

30
Transfer of ownership

The transfer of ownership registration obligation
has been moved from completion of engineering
services to the time of occupation of the house.
At this stage subsidy application details, not
older than three months, will be obligatory.

31
Deregistration of missing beneficiaries

The attached guidelines have been developed to
provide for a scenario were government housing
subsidy beneficiaries are missing, or are unable
to take physical occupation, and the properties
need to be deregistered in the Office of the
Chief Registrar of Deeds. The guidelines are
applicable from 1 July 2005

32
Disparity between date of capture date of
approval

Clarification is required on what date must be
used to fail the applicant in relation to the
searches e.g. date application form was signed,
date received by PHD, date capture on HSS or date
of searches.
Also the time frame that is acceptable from the
search to approval status e.g. if the search
results is older that 3 months must the applicant
be sent for a search again before approval or not
If the applicant is approved and the first
payment claimed against the applicant is 6 month
or more what rules must be applied

33
Review of application form last pay slip etc

In the feedback to SCOPA the department indicated
that the pay slip attached to the application
form must not be older than 3 months, but in many
cases this will not be relevant as the
applications can be submitted 3 months later to
the PHD.
Thus a time lag of 6 months is promoted in
respect of the need to clarify on the acceptable
time lag on pay slip attached to application form
and any of the other dates e.g. signed
application form, submitted to PHD, Capture on
HSS, Search and Approval date