Supreme Court of Appeal rules against SASSA and CPS regarding 2014 implementation cost recovery
30 September 2019 - 10:15PM
Net1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (“Net1” or the “Company”) (NasdaqGS:
UEPS; JSE: NT1) today announced that the Supreme Court of Appeal of
South Africa (“SCA”) has dismissed the Cash Paymaster Services
(Pty) Ltd (“CPS”) application. CPS petitioned the SCA to grant it
leave to appeal the March 2018 High Court order, which set aside
the agreement between CPS and SASSA and the subsequent payment of
ZAR 317 million (R277 million excluding VAT), and ordered CPS to
refund the amount with interest from June 2014 to date of payment.
As previously disclosed by the Company in June
2014, CPS received approximately ZAR 277 million from SASSA related
to the recovery of additional implementation costs it incurred
during the beneficiary bulk re-registration process in fiscal 2012
and 2013. After the award of the tender in January 2012, SASSA
requested CPS to biometrically register all social grant
beneficiaries (including child grant beneficiaries) and collect
additional information for each child grant recipient, materially
higher than what was originally cited in the Request For Proposal.
CPS agreed to SASSA’s request, and as a result CPS performed
approximately 11 million additional registrations beyond those that
it tendered to register for as part of the quoted service fee.
Accordingly, CPS claimed a cost recovery from SASSA, supported by a
factual findings certificate from an independent auditing firm.
SASSA agreed to pay CPS the ZAR 277 million as full settlement of
the additional costs incurred by CPS.
“We are disappointed with the SCA judgment and
will study the judgment to determine our next course of action,”
said Herman Kotzé, CEO of Net1. “We reiterate our view that the
additional registrations we performed based on SASSA’s specific
request, resulted in the identification and removal of a
significant number of ghost beneficiaries and duplicate grants, and
had the direct result of saving the South African government more
than ZAR 2 billion per year. The cost incurred for the additional
registrations was recovered without any profit component. CPS
performed the work requested by SASSA on a bona-fide basis, and it
is unfortunate that it once again finds itself being prejudiced by
apparent shortcomings in SASSA’s procurement processes,” he
concluded.
This ruling is expected to temporarily delay the
filing of the Company’s Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2019,
which was originally scheduled to be filed today, as the Company
has to assess the potential impact, if any, of this ruling on the
Company’s financial statements.
About Net1 (www.net1.com)
Net1 is a leading provider of transaction
processing services, financial inclusion products and services and
secure payment technology. Net1 operates market-leading payment
processors in South Africa and the Republic of Korea.
Net1 offers debit, credit and prepaid processing and issuing
services for all major payment networks. In South Africa, Net1
provides innovative low-cost financial inclusion products,
including banking, lending and insurance and through DNI is a
leading distributor of mobile subscriber starter packs for Cell C,
a South African mobile network operator. Net1 leverages its
strategic equity investments in Finbond and Bank Frick (both
regulated banks), and Cell C to introduce products to new customers
and geographies. Net1 has a primary listing on NASDAQ (NasdaqGS:
UEPS) and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
(JSE: NT1). Visit www.net1.com for additional information about
Net1.
Investor Relations Contact:
Dhruv ChopraGroup Vice President Investor RelationsPhone:
+1-917-767-6722Email: dchopra@net1.com
Media Relations Contact:
Bridget von HoldtBusiness Director – BCWPhone:
+27-82-610-0650Email: bridget.vonholdt@bm-africa.com
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