SAPS Audit Action Plan; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Opening remarks

The Chairperson welcomed a new Member of the Committee, Ms B Marekwa (ANC). Ms Marekwa was a former Deputy President of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) and had a wealth of experience and information in the police sector.   

She received apologies from the Minister, who was in Cabinet, and Ms M Molekwa (ANC), who was attending the public hearings for the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs.

She thanked the Members who had joined the oversight visit, including the Deputy Minister, National Commissioner and the Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng, for their hard work and for ensuring that the oversight visit was a huge success.

The minutes of 2 March 2022 were considered and adopted.

SAPS presentation: post-audit action plan - 2020/21 AGSA audit outcome

Maj Gen Leon Rabie, Component Head: Strategic Management, South African Police Service (SAPS), presented the performance information. A total of 61 findings were raised by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) for the 2019/20 audit cycle, and ten were material findings. During the 2020/21 audit cycle, 35 findings were reported, and 15 were material findings. The Department had received an unqualified audit opinion with material findings in the 2020/21 cycle. The post-audit action plan (PAAP) had been developed to address the 2020/21 audit outcome. The actions of the PAAP were generic by nature, to be addressed by all financial programmes.

The presentation covered the generic response on performance information, key steps to address root causes to audit findings, challenges on the implementation of PAAP, and the status/progress of the current interim audit for 2021/22.

Lt Gen Puleng Dimpane, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), SAPS, presented the financial audit which covered an executive summary, findings, status and conclusion.

She said the PAAP was developed and adopted during 13 to 15 September 2021 in Belabela. Steering committee meetings were activated on 4 November to monitor the implementation of the PAAP, and all responsible divisions had provided progress on its status. The selected provinces, as per the audit strategy, formed part of the weekly steering committee meetings, which allowed them to understand and assist the audit process in respect of the previous findings, and the action steps to address them in the PAAP. Two provinces were already audited and the audit findings had been issued with no material findings.

(See document for detail)

Discussion

The Chairperson said that the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) and SAPS had told the Committee that the SITA board would have had the matter of the Central Firearms Register (CFR) concluded by no later than Friday, 4 March. She had called the Deputy Minister and the head of SITA who had said this in a Committee meeting. She would like to know if this matter had been concluded because it had not yet been concluded by Monday. She was very concerned that certain commitments had been made to the Committee and were never met.

Mr A Whitfield (DA) referred to the shortcomings that had been identified in the SAPS appointment process. He asked why SAPS would appoint personnel without verifying qualifications. He asked if there had been any interventions in this respect.

He referred to the corporate systems integration, which was also linked to the Chairperson's concerns about SITA and the CFR. A couple of weeks ago, the Committee had been told that the payment to suppliers would take place within 30 days, yet the Criminal Record and Crime Scene Management office doors had been locked due to non-payment of the landlord. This had resulted in a disruption of service delivery -- no police clearance certificates were being issued, and there was an impact on the issue of firearm licenses, because the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) was temperamental. This was a current issue, and he was certain that Members had received a number of queries in this regard.

Dr P Groenewald (FF+) asked what the new emerging findings were when addressing the challenges to implementing the PAAP. In terms of the risk and integrity management, there were findings that members of the police owned taxis and that some were in business with the state. What were the action steps related to these findings?

Mr O Terblanche (DA) said that it was quite evident that a significant effort had been made by management to clear some of the issues, but the majority of them were still in the supply chain management (SCM) environment. He was worried that many of the findings did not have any actions aligned to them to address the shortcomings, and those that had action steps had not been completed by the end of December 2021.

He asked SAPS how far they were with the introduction of a transparent or open contracting process, as this was normally a very powerful tool to combat corruption.

Mr H Shembeni (EFF) asked SAPS to provide details of the shortcomings identified in its appointment processes. He asked why SAPS would appoint personnel without the verification of qualifications. What action steps were being taken to address these challenges? What was the status of the employees who were appointed without valid qualifications, and at which ranks were these appointments made? What disciplinary action was taken against the responsible manager, and how would SAPS recover the costs after such appointments were made?

He asked SAPS to explain the specific measures that had been put in place to address the problems within the SAPS supply chain management as per the Budget Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR) recommendations. He asked if the lifestyle audits on supply chain personnel had been completed.

Mr A Seabi (ANC) asked how far SAPS was with the process of restructuring, especially in the context of the complaints that the SAPS structure was top-heavy. Regarding the performance report, there were minimal resources in visible policing. There had been advertisements for the recruitment of police officers, and he asked how the 12 000 positions would be distributed throughout the SAPS structure.

Referring to the PAAP presented to the Committee, he said some action steps had been 100% completed and some 95% completed. He asked if these actions had been pre-audited so that by the time the actual audit happened at the end of the financial year, they would be found to be in line with what the Auditor-General required.

The Chairperson said that she was horrified when she watched a programme about the reservists who had not qualified medically or had not met fitness requirements, but some had been reservists for almost ten years without being paid and been issued uniforms and weapons. Some had admitted to having become criminals themselves. She asked if SAPS would continue having reservists that did not meet the criteria. Could SAPS not use the new intake as an opportunity to review its position on reservists?

Ms N Peacock (ANC) said she had noted some improvement with the supply chain management, but she was mostly concerned with the findings that were linked to SITA and how SAPS was trying to manage the SCM process. She remembered that at the last presentation on SCM, there was an agreement that the Committee should get a presentation at least every month to monitor the progress on the SCM. She recommended that the internal audit committee should form part of such presentations so that the Committee could perform its oversight role and analyse the issues presented. Regarding SAPS' network assets, she recommended that SAPS should do a presentation in the presence of SITA, to ensure that the PAAP also addressed what SITA intended to do.

Mr M Shaik Emam (NFP) recalled that when the Committee interrogated the SCM issues, particularly on the corruption found at the time of the personal protective equipment (PPE) scandal, the Department was supposed to give the Committee a comprehensive report to explain why, for instance, a particular product like a five-litre sanitiser cost R500 from one company, and R160 from another. Although there had been no report, the Department had very importantly highlighted that there may be a problem with red tape in the supply chain process. He asked that the Department elaborate on this to figure out how to deal with these challenges. He asked if SAPS would be the first Department in the country to follow an absolutely transparent supply chain and procurement process even after a contract was awarded, stating who the contract had been awarded to, who the company owners were, what the value of the contract was, and how much was paid for each item. This would save a lot of money in the country.

He said that there was very low morale amongst police officers. He had recently spoken to someone who had been a warrant officer for 22 years with no promotion whatsoever, and he believed that promotions were given to those that were handpicked by SAPS's senior officers. This was why so many officers were disgruntled and why SAPS lost so many skilled members who moved to the private sector.

While there was an understanding that there was corruption all over, corruption could not be accepted in law enforcement, because these were the people who had a specific mandate to uphold the rule of law. While there were some investigations on members when they were appointed, he was of the understanding that the lifestyle audits did not continue over a period of time.

Mr Shaik Emam referred to the latest report on the deaths by suicide of police officers. Sometimes everything was blamed on the police service, and one did not understand what the police officers had to go through when they got to a scene of a crime or murder, which was horrific in how it affected them psychologically and emotionally. After having many discussions with people in law enforcement, he did not believe that SAPS was doing enough to provide its members with psychosocial support.

Ms Marekwa said she was pleased that some action steps on findings had been 100% completed. However, she was concerned that most of the action steps on findings were still in process, with no envisaged timeframes for when they would be completed.

She said the SAPS appointment process needed to be given serious attention, because there should not be instances of a member starting as a constable, and then the next day there was a case against the member for having been involved in a crime, as this harmed the image and reputation of the police. The recruitment process needed to be looked into, to ensure that SAPS recruited members that were serious about doing the job of the police, and to avoid risk and integrity management issues -- like members owning taxis and doing business with the state. Currently, the police were under tremendous pressure and were undermined by communities that think they do not help because of those members in the police who were involved in criminal activities. It was also disturbing to find that young police members were involved in heists, like the Rosettenville incident, especially when criminals got hold of police equipment. Strengthening the recruitment process would really bring respect back to the police.

When it came to restructuring, it was important to ensure that there were more police officers on the ground to do police work, rather than being in offices. South Africa needed more police on the ground to assist in the fight against crime.

SAPS' response

Gen Khehla Sitole, National Police Commissioner, said SAPS had started to design its contract management strategy, which had been formally introduced in the organisation. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) had acknowledged that SAPS was the first to introduce the contract management strategy. The contract management committee which had been established under the umbrella of the strategy had been given a clear assignment to take contract management to a level of dealing with contracts transparently. The contract management committee obviously started dealing with damage control, especially where it involved corruption.

Regarding measures implemented to address the SCM challenges, he was certain that Members have seen in the media that there had been another takedown of 16 members which had happened in February. There were various members whose services were terminated as a result of disciplinary action that had taken place within the supply chain. In his view, almost enough action had been taken, but there was still action being initiated to clean the supply chain further going forward. SAPS was trying to rebuild its SCM so that it also presented a better image for the organisation.

With the restructuring, the reduction process of the top-heavy structure had already started, although it was still in progress. It was now a known fact that the number of  Deputy National Commissioners had been reduced from six to three, and the divisions had been scaled down from fourteen to nine. Three divisions had been scaled down and terminated as a result of the reduction of the top-heavy structure. There were very clear directives with regard to the disposal of those positions. The CFO function had been instructed to freeze the budget of those particular ranks so that it was taken down to the production level, where it could rather be used to employ more constables at the stations.

There had been a lot of conflict of interest in so far as the restructuring was concerned, but at the present moment it had been unlocked and the restructuring committee was proceeding and would need support from all angles. If SAPS did not continue with the restructuring process, then there would unfortunately not be enough resources on the ground, because the budget that had been allocated was not enough to cater for all the police stations at the present moment. SAPS was compelled to migrate the current resources which were at the macro function down to the production level. 

SAPS had also introduced a Tourism Reserve Police Service, as well as a Royal Reserve Police Service. These were permanent types of complementary arrangements to the personnel plan of the organisation.   

Referring to the lease of buildings and other types of supplier-related payment, he said there was an overlap to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). SAPS had also experienced a few problems where police had been kicked out of buildings when it was not necessarily the responsibility of SAPS to ensure that those leases were paid, but this also included where electricity had been switched off, so at times it was a cross-cutting type of responsibility.

To ensure auditing processes were sustained, SAPS activated the compliance board process from the inspectorate, and also developed an internal control framework in terms of section 38(8) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) to ensure that there were measures in place to address the weak points.

Lt Gen Francina Vuma, Deputy National Commissioner: Asset and Legal Services, said that the challenges involving SITA were quite serious. She had spoken to the CEO of SITA, who was also frustrated due to the fact that he could not force the board to approve the procurement processes, and suggested that perhaps the Minister could be asked to intervene in this regard because it was such a serious issue.  

The restructuring process had been frustrating, and should have been finalised by now. SAPS had conducted workshops with all provincial and divisional commissioners and continuously changed its dates to accommodate the time that had been lost when the process was put on hold. The restructuring process should be finalised within the next three months -- by May. The provinces would receive a directive this week for them to engage in the finalisation of the restructuring.

Lt Gen Lineo Ntshiea, Divisional Commissioner: Human Resource Management, referred to the issue of the reference checks. Since the audit, SAPS management had issued a directive internally to inform all provinces and divisions that the appointment documents that they submit to head office must have a checklist to indicate that there had been reference checks. She confirmed that in the current process of recruitment, all files would be reference-checked, and head office would not accept any file that did not have a reference check form. Measures had already been put in place in this regard, and SAPS would continue to monitor the risk compliance. During inspections conducted in the provinces and divisions, there would also be inspection that the appointment files had been reference checked.

The Auditor-General (AG) had indicated that every appointment made in SAPS needed to have the qualifications verified before the appointment. It was found that in a few appointment files, the qualifications had not been verified. The process involved successful candidates submitting all of their appointment documents, together with their qualifications. SAPS would then take all of these qualifications and submit them to the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) for verification. In terms of the memorandum of agreement with SAQA, the turnaround time was 30 days for SAQA to give SAPS feedback on the verification of qualifications. However, in some cases, it might take longer because they were unable to find some qualifications on the system, and this would require some fieldwork. SAPS had put measures in place to ensure that in its recruitment plan, it also factored in the 30 days before it issued an appointment letter, which gave SAQA enough time to verify the qualifications. In instances when members were appointed and it was later discovered that their qualifications were fraudulent, SAPS would then immediately start its disciplinary process, which would lead to termination and a criminal case, as the documents that the person submitted had been misrepresented. SAPS could not determine fraudulent qualifications with the naked eye, so the documents were submitted to SAQA for verification. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) had issued a directive to all government departments that qualifications must be verified, and SAPS was one of the departments that did well in this regard. Every year, the SAPS CFO allocated a budget specifically for this project. SAPS did verify all qualifications, but there had been instances when it appointed persons before it received the results from SAQA, and it was working towards correcting this.

Lt Gen Ntshiea agreed that she had seen the interviews on the reservists. Since 2011, SAPS had done a lot in terms of appointing or absorbing some of the reservists, especially those that qualified. The majority of the reservists that had complained were those who had joined the police service a long time ago but had not met the requirements, because there were different categories of reservists. Some had joined with or without having matric, and had to follow all the steps that an applicant would follow. The majority had not met the medical or fitness requirements. SAPS had since amended its requirements in terms of the recruitment of reservists, where every reservist that joined the police service had to meet the requirements of a permanent police officer so that it was easy for them to apply for any post that was advertised in the SAPS. If the Committee wanted SAPS to provide the statistics on the number of reservists it had absorbed since 2011, this information could be provided. She had also engaged with some provincial commissioners, as there needed to be conversations within the organisation to discuss solutions as to what SAPS would do with the reservists who currently did not meet the requirements.

The intake of 10 000 new recruits would be taken to the college on 1 April. These 10 000 recruits were distributed across the different provinces. Gauteng would be receiving 2 278 recruits, and this figure would be distributed between the visible policing environment as well as the detective services. Kwazulu-Natal would receive 1 601 recruits, the Western Cape would receive 1 158, the Eastern Cape would receive 1 087, the Free State would receive 1 006, Limpopo would receive 861, Mpumalanga would receive 690, North West would receive 624 and the Northern Cape would receive 501. Public Order Policing (POP) units would also receive 1 000 recruits. Even with this recruitment process, SAPS had also prioritised its reservists, and a number of these reservists would also go to the college in April.

Lt Gen Ntshiea said that she took note of the comment by Ms Marekwa, who had indicated that the SAPS recruitment and appointment process needed to be strengthened. SAPS had held a recruitment indaba in 2019, where it had looked at how it would strengthen its recruitment process, SAPS was continuously looking at how it could strengthen this process.

Maj Gen Japie Riet, Acting Divisional Commissioner: Supply Chain Management, referred to Mr Whitfield’s observation that the Criminal Record and Crime Scene Management office doors had been locked due to non-payment of the landlord. He said that the National Commissioner had indicated that SAPS was also dependent on another department in this regard. At this stage, there were currently negotiations between the DPWI and the landlord, and the prospect of having this building open was very good -- it should be opened by today. He assured the Committee that SAPS had paid all its funds for leases to the DPWI, so it was DPWI that was mandated to ensure that those leases were paid.

To prevent corruption, SAPS's supply chain and procurement processes were transparent and had been guided by various National Treasury instructions. He acknowledged that Mr Terblanche had also been part of this environment and had taught him a thing or two about conforming to particular instructions, and he was quite aware of this process. In addition to this, there were also checklists that SAPS had introduced in this financial year, by which SAPS would check all of its procurement processes and ensure that it conformed to the relevant legislative frameworks and regulations which govern the procurement processes. SAPS was also monitored by internal auditors, the Auditor-General and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and these particular bodies ensured that corruption was prevented and combated in the organisation.

He agreed that there had been deep-rooted SCM challenges, but SAPS had made progress by raising the supply chain to a much higher level than it used to be. It was because of the supply chain interventions that SAPS had received a very good unqualified audit. He was proud to be a supply chain manager at this stage.

He would not comment on the corruption involving PPE, because various investigations were being conducted by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), which might be able to respond to this. He could say that SAPS's procurement in this regard had come under scrutiny by the AG, which had submitted a report which did not indicate any type of corruption. Supply chain was a highly regulated area, where each and every process needed to be confirmed, and it was guided by law and prescripts. If these prescripts were not followed, it would lead to risks. The audit outcome was proof that the SCM processes were going in the right direction.

With its transparent supply chain processes, SAPS was guided by prescripts and followed an e-tender process which was regulated by National Treasury, and captured each and every tender that was awarded. He assured the Committee that SCM was doing its utmost best to correct the challenges.

The Chairperson agreed that even though there were still problems within the supply chain, there had definitely been an improvement. She encouraged the SCM team to continue with their hard work.

Lt Gen Dimpane referred to the payment of service providers and said the Department was currently compliant at a level of 99.7%. There would be invoices that were in dispute, and the Department would have to resolve those disputes with the service providers.

The internal audit committee had instructed that there had to be an internal audit to validate the PAAP, by going through the actions steps that would be completed. The internal audit would undertake a validation exercise, and a report presented to the internal audit committee. The internal audit committee equally monitored the process of audit action plans in the SAPS quarterly meetings. SAPS provides updates on the actions steps that it executes to resolve the findings and prevent their recurrence. It did not focus only on the findings that were identified at the time of the audit, but also looked at all of the transactions that took place during that particular financial year and developed checklists to ensure that there were system controls to prevent repeat findings. SAPS was working in collaboration with the internal audit committee to prevent repeat findings in the financial environment and performance information space.

Maj Gen Charity Matlou, Chief Risk Officer, referred to the issue of members who conduct business with the state. She confirmed that SAPS had completed five action steps to address this challenge, the first of which was to investigate and purify the database for the identified members as a preventative measure. It had been found that of the 91 members who were alleged to be conducting business with the state, 44 were active directors in the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), three had no companies, 40 were interns and their services were terminated, and four members resigned as directors of their companies. The second action step was to strengthen engagement with the Department of Transport, to look at the linking of the system as a reactive measure. In the meetings with the Department of Transport, there was agreement to use the identity verification system of the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to prevent the members of the police given operational licences to operate taxis. The third action step was to have awareness sessions rolled out to members, and this was continuously being done. Members were required to declare proof of transfer of vehicles and ownership -- some members did not own taxis but procured them on behalf of family members. Consequence management would be instituted on non-compliant members. Some members had been dismissed and other members had been given warnings.

There were not only engagements with the DPSA and National Treasury to address the employees who conducted business with the state, as there had also been engagement with the Department of Social Development (DSD) in terms of the R350 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. The DPSA had proactive measures to block those members who applied for the SRD grant while being employed by the state.

The Department had realised that the Central Supplier Database (CSD) was the entry point for members conducting business with the state. SAPS had issued directive for members to resign from companies registered on the CSD and was continuously reissuing this directive.

Maj Gen Rabie referred to the repeat and new emerging findings that had been identified. SAPS was about three quarters through the interim audit, which included a new programme that included the DPCI, and the Detective and Forensic Services that had not been audited in the previous two years. The findings that would emerge in this environment would be considered as emerging findings and would include issues around the detail of the recording of crime and the data that was associated with the investigation process, more specifically the details of complainants and victims. There were a couple of findings within the forensics environment that related to the fingerprint leads, the DNA person to person leads etc. SAPS was in the process of responding to these findings and would be able to give more detail at the end of the interim audit process. Some of these findings were currently disputed, so SAPS would still need to meet with AGSA to confirm those findings.

The repeat findings were mainly in Programme 2 (Visible Policing). For instance, it had been found that the detail of charges were not 100% correctly captured compared to what was in the docket, and where the details of the complainants and victims were not accurately reflected when they reported the crime. There were also findings that referred to the recovery of lost and stolen firearms and vehicles, where there was an overstatement of performance because some of these had been recovered outside of the reporting period. SAPS could not comment on the materiality of these findings at the moment, as the materiality would become visible only at the end of the audit and would determine whether it exceeded the 5% error rate.

Deputy Minister’s comments

Mr Cassel Mathale, Deputy Minister of Police, said the Department would continue to pressurise SITA to respond appropriately. He had said in the previous meeting that he was not pleased with how SITA was servicing the Department, as it could not trust the commitments that SITA makes. The delay in the conclusion of the procurement processes was a typical example of the experiences that the Department had with SITA. The solution was to look at the Act because the law allowed SAPS to submit through the DPSA to opt-out of the SITA arrangement. For as long as there were these types of dependencies, one way or another, there would be difficulties with SITA. The Department would be happy if the Committee supported the initiative for SAPS to opt-out of SITA. The police service was a different environment, and speed was of essence if SAPS wanted to succeed in what it did. SITA had been giving the government headaches over the years since its establishment. He would agree that the option would be to request the DPSA for SAPS to be excluded from SITA and be allowed to handle Information technology (IT) on its own.

SAPS had a very transparent recruitment process, where people failed and succeeded based on how they responded to the questions that they were asked. Fraudulent certificates were exposed only when the custodians of such information verified the qualifications. It was not a norm for SAPS to appoint people who were not qualified.

He agreed that the SAPS procurement process was very transparent and was guided by the law. The SAPS may not be where it envisaged itself to be, but there had definitely been improvements. The supply chain system had literally collapsed and it had to be built up. Since Maj Gen Riet and his team had come in, there had been steady progress. It was not 100% perfect, but it was better.

Many of the outstanding matters that affected SAPS's ability to do its work, especially in the forensics environment, had had progress. There was still much more that needed to be done, but in general, there had been progress. He would continuously say that the Committee had an advantage point of seeing things that the Department did not see. As the Department interacted with the Committee, it made the Department wiser and it could only improve.

Further discussion

The Chairperson said that the comments made by Ms Marekwa about the top-heavy structure of SAPS and having more people on the ground should be looked at very carefully. This was indeed a problem that had been flagged by the Committee. For the next term, the Committee would prioritise meetings with the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) and a separate meeting with the Minister of the DPWI.

She asked for an update with regard to the SAPS's underspending. It had come to the end of the financial year, and there was an anticipation of quite a large underspending. She asked the Deputy Minister for an audited list of all of the reservists on the SAPS system, and whether they had been absorbed or not. What would be done with the challenges regarding the reservists? She said this had to be looked at quite carefully, especially if they needed to be removed from the system.

She had received a number of complaints from persons who were accepted by SAPS just before Covid-19, and who had then resigned from their jobs but were not notified by SAPS as to when they would start working. These persons had sent her complaints that they had been left in the lurch and that they currently did not have an understanding of their status.

She said that Mr Shembeni had written a message to the Committee. She had asked who the author of a message was, which claimed that there were members who had been dismissed but there were no records of their dismissal at the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and the South African Revenue Service (SARS), they had never received dismissal letters from the National Commissioner, and that they were still shown as being active on the system. These were all audit irregularities, which would keep presenting themselves if they were not eliminated from the systems.

Mr Shembeni said that about 43 members had been dismissed in the Free State from 2018 to 2022. As there were regulations according to how members were dismissed, he had found out that there was a member dismissed under regulation 12, where the provincial commissioner’s office in the Free State had sent someone with documents for the dismissed member to sign because the documents that she had already signed had been under the wrong regulation. He questioned how top management could make such a mistake. He questioned how many other members had been dismissed under the wrong regulation. What was the cause of members being dismissed in this way, and who should take responsibility for it?

He asked if it was a lawful dismissal if a person was asked to recuse himself or herself from a disciplinary hearing because of a possible conflict of interest in an investigation.

He questioned whether whistle-blowers were protected under the dispensation of South Africa. Seemingly, once a person became a whistle-blower, then that person was exposed and killed. All of this happened under the SAPS -- the people were not protected and therefore they did not give information about what was happening on the ground. He asked what was being done about the protection of whistle-blowers.

When supply chain management members were vetted for security clearance, what level of security clearance did they have?

Mr Whitfield asked whether the automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) was part of the issues related to SITA. He was aware that there were issues with the AFIS system, which had an impact on the clearance certificates and firearm licences, etc. He asked for a status update on AFIS and what the future was with regard to systems integration.

Dr Groenewald asked for an update on the position of the National Head of the DPCI, who would become 60 years old in September. The Act was very clear in terms of what happened when the National Head was 60 years old and should retire. However, there were mechanisms to extend his service, and part of this extension was that Parliament must approve a further period if he continued in this position. He asked whether Parliament had received such an application to extend his service and if not, then why not.

He asked if SAPS had record of all the cases against the police service and if it knew exactly how much this had cost it.

The Chairperson said that she had received a letter from the Speaker about the term of office for the National Head of the DPCI. She had sent a letter to the Minister requesting that the matter be resolved but was yet to receive a formal response.

Mr Terblanche said that there had been overall improvements in the different police environments, especially SCM. The Department had received an unqualified audit with three matters of emphasis, which was the first unqualified audit in five years. An area of emphasis that was still worrying was the pending lawsuits against the police. He asked how SAPS intended to address this issue.

He was concerned that the Department would again see a major underspending, yet it claimed that it did not have the budget to back up policing, especially in the visible policing and detective services. There was irregular expenditure of R3.475 billion which was under assessment and was a very serious matter of concern. He asked for clarity on this irregular expenditure.

SAPS' response

Gen Sitole referred to Mr Shembeni’s questions and said that SAPS had established a conduct committee that looks into all the disciplinary matters, including suspensions, reviews, alignments and transfers emanating from disciplinary processes. This conduct committee oversees the nine provinces, and it would be assigned with the responsibility of providing a report on what was happening within the Free State in terms of regulation 9 and regulation 12 dismissals.

When a member asks for the recusal of a presiding officer, this was done within the framework of the law. There would just be a caution that it did not become a personal matter or a matter where the member felt as if the presiding officer might not be fair. Such processes would be evaluated within the framework of the law. If, for instance, the presiding officer refused to recuse himself or herself and according to the relevant law, there was a conflict of interest, then there was a provision when dealing with the matter within and beyond such a trial process. The conduct committee would look into such matters to ensure that the trial process ran fairly and that no one was disadvantaged, but the discipline within the organisation must still be maintained.

Lt Gen Vuma said that regulation 12 dealt with the normal processes of discipline based on the categorised type of offences that were committed. As the misconduct was explained and tabled, it required the normal processes where witnesses could be called etc. However, regulation 9 dealt with expeditious processes, where the serious cases were explained in terms of the different sub-regulations that followed. The final outcome of dismissals from both regulations was dealt with in the same way and with the same process.

The majority of the supply chain officials were vetted at the level of 'top secret.' SAPS was equally dependent on the capacity of Crime Intelligence, but it was a continuous process.

Lt Gen (Dr) Sibongiseni Thotsejane, Divisional Commissioner: Technology Management Services, referred to the AFIS system and said that the SAPS Technology Management Service (TMS) team was doing enterprise architecture of existing systems. The enterprise architecture standstill reports would form part of the Information Systems (IS) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy. From there SAPS TMS team would understand what the current view of the network and application infrastructure was. Next week, all of the major generals with the provincial heads, together with their support team members, would map out what would need to be integrated into the application architecture going forward, as well as what was relevant and what systems and applications were responding to the current business requirements. Yesterday, the SAPS TMS teams had sat with the risk and integration committee who would be doing a risk assessment on how all the systems, applications and services would be obtained. The outcomes would inform what would remain and what would respond to the business requirements. The business units would need to guide the functionalities required, as well as the type of technology enablement that was required for their environments, without being associated with brands or without being associated with the typical type of service providers. This process would be in conjunction with legal services, SCM and finance, and would be taken forward in the new areas and ICT strategy to ensure that integration of the applications that would have passed those assessments would continue in an integrated manner. Integration and interoperability sat high on the priority list for the new area and ICT strategy. When there were integrated systems that had interoperability and when the data policy was finalised and signed off, it would help SAPS get richer data for quicker decision making and for preferable policies within SAPS, to help prevent and detect crime.

Maj Gen Riet referred to the R3.475 billion of irregular expenditure and said that it had been an audited finding from the previous financial year. Irregular expenditure was a sticky issue within the organisation. In various environments within the organisation, there was a lack of understanding of how to deal with irregular expenditure, despite the fact that National Treasury had eventually issued some guidelines. In the previous guidelines, National Treasury did not ascertain the timeframe for the assessment of this irregular expenditure, but the new guidelines had tightened the period of assessment to a period of 30 days, to indicate whether it was irregular expenditure or not.

It would also be the first time to have particular measurements in the annual performance plan (APP) to ensure that 70% of the irregular expenditure had to be decreased in this particular financial year. There had been some interventions after the audit findings to assist the provinces and stations to do assessments, and most assessments had determined that it was not irregular expenditure, but where there was irregular expenditure there were also disciplinary cases. The R3.475 billion of irregular expenditure referred to old matters, where most of the members had eventually been dismissed.

Maj Gen Eleanor Groenewald, Head: Litigation and Administration, Legal Division, said that SAPS did have a record of all the cases against it. The cost orders were paid by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, specifically the state attorney's offices. SAPS did have a record of the reimbursement between departments on the costs paid.

SAPS was aware of the growing number of court cases being instituted against the Department. Besides its integrated resource management committee, which deals with additional capacity, SAPS also had a specific task team on how to address the claims being instituted against the Department. 

Lt Gen/Adv Godfrey Lebeya, National Head, DPCI, confirmed that there were investigations that the DPCI was conducting on the PPE issues which involved some of the personnel at head office. So far, from the investigation, the DPCI had obtained 87 statements, with three more statements that needed to be completed to conclude the investigation. There had been some difficulties with the remaining witnesses, but there was an understanding that the DPCI might have to approach them in terms of warning statements. After the remaining three statements were obtained, the DPCI would then be guided by what the prosecutors said.

Chairperson’s comments

The Chairperson said that there were a number of areas where there was still not a satisfactory response, but she does not want a response today because she was tired of responses when there was no progress. She did not seek responses but wanted to see progress at Crime Intelligence in terms of the budget that had been rolled over and was anticipated to be underspent. She was looking for progress on the appointment of members in Crime Intelligence, especially with the vacancies that existed.

She was also concerned that the movement of legislation was extremely slow. If there were no regulations and amendments to key Acts, then SAPS would continue to have irregular expenditure. Most of the root causes of audit findings were related to a lack of review and monitoring of internal controls in respect of procurement prescripts. This called into question the effectiveness of the SAPS management structure. She questioned if there was a consequence management approach to discipline managers who underperformed.

SAPS was the largest government department in terms of personnel. Every level of management and quality assurance must be effective. If one level failed to monitor and review internal controls, the members would not be held accountable for their actions. If management as a whole failed, then ultimately policing would fail. She reiterated Ms Marekwa’s comment that the police service's image and reputation did not look very good. Communities had lost confidence in SAPS. Operation Dudula was actually a manifestation of the fact that SAPS was losing control of what the communities expected and what was actually being done. There were a number of vigilante groups all over the country, which did not augur well for the SAPS.

Regarding the audit findings, she would like to re-look at all the action steps and all the reports that had been provided to the Committee. She observed that there would need to be standardised minutes for the bid committees. The availability of these minutes was essential for accountability and transparency -- it was a requirement set by National Treasury, and they must be made publicly available.

There had been a lengthy discussion about SCM lifestyle audits, but she would also want to see a situation where there were lifestyle audits for all generals and all senior staff members. She had not got a fair understanding that the lifestyle audits were up to date.

She asked how many bids, and the value thereof, there had been for tenders that were awarded to any government employee, and not just from a SAPS employee. She questioned if there were members from any other government departments who had been awarded contracts and tenders.

The 2021/2022 interim audit review still had repeat findings and new emerging findings. She asked what had led to these new emerging findings. When would the development of the annual performance monitoring system be completed, and when would it be fully implemented? She questioned whether SITA would be involved in implementing this system. The Committee would no longer allow SAPS leadership to continuously lay the blame on SITA and the DPWI -- this had to come to an end. If it did not come to an end, then this Committee would have failed in its oversight role. She did not want to hear responses -- she wanted to see actions.

Closing Remarks

Deputy Minister Mathale agreed with the Chairperson's observations that the intention to serve the communities needed to progress.

The Chairperson acknowledged the presentation and the responses from the team. She commented that there had been fewer complaints from the Members that their questions had not been responded to, which was a good sign.

She said that the draft oversight report was ready and would be circulated to Members once she had properly scrutinised it. The Committee had had a very good oversight visit last weekend. The Committee would arrange another oversight visit for the end of March, which she would unfortunately not be able to attend due to another compulsory meeting. Thereafter, the next oversight date was scheduled for 19 to 22 April, which was during the time of the budget hearings, but she would prioritise and find a date for an oversight visit to the Free State. 

The meeting was adjourned.