Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) on its Annual Performance Plan

Meeting report

Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) on its Annual Performance Plan
Mr Robert McBride, Executive Director, IPID: noted that the new Minister was briefed on 15 April 2017 on the Constitutional Court judgement which ruled that the IPID Act had to be amended to allow for compliance with the Constitution, the Farlam Commission’s pronouncements and recommendations and the Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) recommendations. IPID had briefed the Minister about the lack of funding and inadequate budget. The Farlam Commission recommended that IPID should be structurally and operationally independent from the police. The Minister was briefed on how IPID could implement the recommendations and the lack of adequate funding and on the accrual from the previous financial year into the new financial year of about R18 million. IPID faces the risk of imminent eviction since its current office building has had an invalid lease since 2014 and a new building is yet to be provided by the Department of Public Works. The Minister was also briefed on the status of some of the high-level instigations and on today’s agenda.

IPID’s mandate covers investigating assault by police, death by police action or while in custody, rape by a police officer or while in custody, discharge of firearms and matters relating to corruption and systemic corruption, or matters referred to IPID or by the initiative of the Executive director in relation to investigative oversight over the police.

In light of the Appropriation Bill, the Budget cannot be changed at this stage since the recommendations were made with the previous Minister. However, the Committee could intervene and assist in increasing IPID’s budget.

Ms Lindokuhle Ngcongo, IPID Chief Financial Officer, showed how IPID’s historical budget allocations have affected its ability to function. FY2012/13 was the first year of the implementation of the IPID Act and the budget has grown at an average growth rate of 5.2% which is below inflationary growth.

Despite the implementation of the IPID Act bringing additional responsibilities and IPID demonstrating its spending ability of its budget, the budget allocation has shown insignificant growth. The budget does not cover sufficiently the additional responsibilities nor does it fully accommodate escalations in contractual obligations and the regulated annual wage increment of up to 7%. This decline in funding has forced IPID to curtail its operations and projects in order to sustain itself and remain within its baseline.

The increase over the MTEF is 4.6% in FY2016/17, 4.3% in 2018/19 and 5.6% in FY2019/20 which is less than the projected inflationary rates. As a result of the historical budget cuts experienced by IPID and the non-inflationary escalation to the budget allocations of IPID, the current IPID funding has become unsustainable in the long term to fund the growing costs. The compensation of employees takes up the bulk of the budget expenditure since labour is one of IPID’s critical resources as an investigative body.

To operate within the financial constraints, IPID has prioritized its budget, however, other costs relating to goods and services, transfers and capital assets continue to grow. The bulk of the compensation costs go to investigation and the information management with the current ratio of investigative staff to core support staff being 70:30 which will be improved over the MTEF period to 60:40.

The current Estimates of National Expenditure reflect three programmes while the IPID Annual Performance Plan reports on four programmes. National Treasury has been engaged to reinstate IPID’s core enabling programme Legal Services during the 2017/18 MTEF budgetary period.

She reported that investigative capacity has been prioritised within the limited baseline for the continuity of investigation on reported cases. She noted IPID is experiencing capacity constraints with; strengthening integrity and protection; legal services and contract management; service delivery coverage and accessibility; accounting compliance and reporting responsibilities; strategy and performance management and monitoring the quality of recommendations.

Some activities could not be accommodated within the baseline of IPID, such as the implementation of the IPID Expansion strategy which was to accommodate the demand placed on IPID for additional regional and district offices throughout the provinces; the full implementation of the Marikana Commission’s Report recommendations relating to obtaining external experts; the implementation of section 23 of the IPID Act; the replacement of critical information, communication and technology (ICT) infrastructure and equipment due to warrant expiry; the disaster Recovery Plan of IPID and the implementation of the Security Analysis Report.

IPID had targeted to grow it staff from 418 to 423 posts, however, due to the Compensation of Employees ENE ceiling being imposed, IPID had to reduce its existing forecast capacity, from 418 to 388, to remain within the ceiling. In 1997 the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) determined that the ideal human capacity for the then Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) was 535 posts. Even though IPID directly investigates considerably more cases that its predecessor, its human capacity has been reduced to 388 posts. This reality puts considerable pressure on the few existing human resource that deal with the heavy work load. The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Committee was urged to support the allocation of additional funding to IPID so as to enable it to fulfill its mandate.

Ms Nomkhosi Netsianda, IPID Chief Director, Corporate Services, IPID, presented the objectives and performance indicators and challenges for Programme 1 Strategic Leadership, Management and Support Services. On IPID’s vacancy report, there are 16 posts currently vacant with 12 across all provinces and 4 national positions. Most of these posts are at an advance stage of being filled.

Mr Matthews Sesoko, IPID Chief Director: Investigations and Information Management, presented the objectives and performance indicators and challenges for Programme 2 Investigations and Information Management. The programme consists of three sub-programmes; investigative management, investigation services and information management. Among the performance targets, is to have the percentage of registered cases allocated within 72 hours of written notification to be at 80% from FY2018/19, to have 62% of investigations of death by police that are decision ready, 60% of investigations of discharge of an official firearm and 65% of investigations of rape by a police officer, 45% of investigations of torture that are decision ready from FY2018/19.

Programme 2 challenges include capacity constraints including the investigative staff, number of offices per province, distances to be travelled in terms of investigations to be conducted. IPID has been requesting funding for its Expansion Strategy so as to establish district and regional offices in order to have more presence. IPID currently has only two offices in each province and this affects the work and most of the budget expenditure is spent on catering for travel expenses during investigations and affects the response time to access crime scenes. IPID has lobbied National Treasury and the Portfolio Committee on Police to assist in this.

The ICT infrastructure assists in case management but due to lack of funding, the databases cannot be updated and hence affects its ability to have an optimum ICT infrastructure and poses the high risk of occasional breakdown.

IPID’s key achievements are notable criminal convictions such as the Northern Cape policeman who was sentenced for the rape of two teenagers at Postmasburg; the Mpumalanga constable who was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for murder and a Gauteng police constable sentenced to 18 years for the Bedfordview murder, a conviction for attempted murder in Free State, a murder conviction in the Northern Cape, a conviction for the Macassar rape in the Western Cape and murder convictions in Kwazulu-Natal, North West and Gauteng Province among others.

Ms Marianne Moroasui, IPID Chief Director, Legal Services, said the programme has three sub-programmes; Legal Support and Administration; Litigation Advisory services; and Investigation Advisory Services. Legal Services is yet to be considered as separate distinct programme, however it is important that it is recognized as such in the future. Under section 8(1) of the IPID Act, Legal Services is considered as a unit that forms part of the National Office. IPID is in consultation with National Treasury to adjust its budget structure so as to include Legal Services as one of the programmes that needs funding. Due to the nature of IPID’s core mandate, it is litigation intensive and therefore necessitates that the unit gets more legal staff. A budget increase would also help the unit get back the post of Director of Legal Advisory Services which was lost due to budget cuts.

The unit targets to have 90% of written legal opinions provided to IPID within 21 working days of request, 90% of contracts finalized within 30 days of request and 100% of PAIA requests finalized within 30 days among other performance indicators.

Ms Mamodishe Molope, IPID Chief Director, Compliance Monitoring and Stakeholder Management, said Programme 4: Compliance Monitoring and Stakeholder Management was to safeguard the principles of cooperative governance and stakeholder relations. The programme also evaluates the relevance and appropriateness of recommendations made to SAPS and Municipal Police Service (MPS) in line with the IPID Act. Compliance Monitoring evaluates the quality of recommendations made and the responsiveness received from SAPS, the MPS and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in compliance with their reporting obligations. Stakeholder Management manages relations with key Directorate stakeholders such as SAPS, MPS, the Civilian Secretariat for Police, the NPA, the Public Protector and civil society organizations. It also provides communication and marketing services and coordinates the distribution of information to stakeholders and promotes public awareness on the IPID. The strategic objectives and targets were noted.

Mr McBride stated that IPID will continue to prioritize its budget expenditure due to the financial constraints. It will proceed with the AGSA recommendations on expenditure management and cost containment measures. He requested support from the Committee and the Ministry for the full implementation of the Constitutional Court judgement which recommended the amendment of the IPID Act. It is currently consulting civil society and other key stakeholders on the possible amendments to the Act. IPID cannot implement AGSA’s recommendations and the Farlam Commission recommendations, in full, which deal with IPID’s structural and operational independence due to budgetary constraints.

Discussion
The Chairperson asked if IPID has any innovative plans in order to comply with the recommendation by the AGSA and the Farlam Commission.

Mr G Michalakis (DA) asked if there was a relationship between IPID and SAPS, specifically between the Executive Director of IPID and the Acting Police Commissioner, General Khomotso Phahlane. He inquired whether the Acting Police Commissioner, General Khomotso Phaphlane, has made any attempts in resolving the issues raised or there have been any notable reactions or actions to date. He inquired why IPID did not seek approval from National Treasury before utilizing the R4 million declared as a saving on compensation on employees during 2015/16.

Ms B Engelbrecht (DA, Gauteng) asked why in light of the decrease in budgetary allocation to IPID, the expenditure to IPID’s core mandate of investigation and information management is lower than that of the administration management expenditure. She asked if there is a contingency plan for the settlement of employee civil claims and also whether the establishment of a Ballistic and Forensic Unit was necessary. She asked if it would be cheaper for IPID to procure its own vehicles.

Mr D Ximbi (ANC, Western Cape) asked about the type of corruption cases IPID investigates and how it participates in the anti-corruption campaigns

Ms G Manolope (ANC, Northern Cape) asked about the relationship between IPID and SAPS with regard to the cases where there was no feedback and where no disciplinary measures were taken by SAPS upon receiving recommendations. She asked if IPID could achieve its preset target of 108 outreach events in light of the financial constraints it is experiencing. Has IPID considered having an internship programme in order to train new staff who may help in reducing the vacancy rate by filling the vacant posts?

Ms T Wana (ANC, Eastern Cape) asked the CFO if, when computing the budget calculations, she factors in the inflationary rates and what items were covered under capital assets.

Mr M Monakedi (ANC, Limpopo) asked about the vacancies in Limpopo and whether all the vacancies had been filled. He also noted that no key achievements were mentioned for Limpopo. He asked how IPID evaluates the quality of the legal advice given.

Mr J Mthethwa (ANC, KwaZulu-Natal) congratulated IPID on their work and inquired if, when signing the Memorandum of Understanding with NPA and SAPS, there remains a distinction and independence of IPID. He inquired how IPID has been operating with an inadequate budget for so long and whether the relationship of the Executive Director and the Acting Police Commissioner, General Khomotso Phahlane, affects IPID.

Mr McBride, IPID Executive Director, responded that the reason IPID exists is so that the police culture could change and to eliminate instances of torture, rogue units and to ensure that police officers act within their mandate of protecting and serving the public. Its predecessor, ICD, could not function as it was not independent from the police and this had to be set in line with the constitutional requirement.

IPID as a new institution has been enduring a perception problem from the public due to the lack of awareness of its mandate and its relationship with other institutions. He expressed his displeasure with the frustration IPID was getting from the Acting Police Commissioner, General Khomotso Phahlane, and stated that the Commissioner was interfering with IPID investigations. The Commissioner should have stepped aside like every other government official so as to allow investigations to continue. IPID has more than a prima facie case against the Commissioner and he remains a suspect in their investigations. The Commissioner was using his position and access to Parliament to defend himself in Parliament.

IPID has a good standing relationship with SAPS considering the fact that is does not have an intelligence service and heavily relies on police officers reporting criminal conduct of other police officers and cooperation with IPID during investigations. He requested the Committee to investigate the extent of interference by the Acting Police Commissioner in the IPID investigations against Mr Phahlane. IPID has already written letters to the new Minister and also to the President concerning this. The Minister is yet to respond but had promised to assist however he can to resolve it.

The inactions by the previous Minister of Police are the root cause for the problems IPID is currently facing. There appears to be a double standard on the treatment of the Commissioner as compared to previous government officials who were suspected and subsequently convicted for graft and corruption.

During the absence of the Executive Director from IPID, a number of intelligence personnel were infiltrated into IPID and subsequently left and went to Crime Intelligence, upon his return. He has a strong belief that IPID’s telephones have been bugged by the police in effort to intercept communications and interfere with the investigations against the Commissioner.

He noted that some of the cases IPID handles concerns the disappearance of narcotic evidence in custody and under the control of the Commissioner. He expressed his concerns about the lack of infrastructural independence of IPID from the police and expressed his concerns on whether IPID’s exhibit evidence would be safe in police custody considering the fact that IPID is investigating the police.

The MOU will not substitute the law with regard to each institution’s responsibility and the purpose of the MOU is to offer coordination among the institutions. He stated that the reason for delay in SAPS feedback on some of IPID’s recommendations, is because upon receipt of the IPID recommendation, SAPS appoints another investigator to reinvestigate the case and this compromises the integrity of investigations conducted.

He noted that IPID does have an internship programme. However, due to budgetary constraints, not many interns are absorbed and also during the internship, the interns get very small stipends.

Ms Ngcongo, IPID CFO, replied that the budget is always detailed and goes through a rigorous approval process. However, despite IPID showing its ability to spend, it is still being subjected to budget cuts by National Treasury. IPID has engaged Treasury and expressed its concern about the non sustainability of the current budget to cater for costs and operational expenditure. However, National Treasury, despite being provided with sufficient evidence on the need for more funds, made the decision to take the R4 million to cater for other expenses.

Mr McBride stated that the new Minister was sympathetic to IPID’s problems and has given assurances that they will be dealt with.

Ms Netsianda, IPID Chief Director: Corporate Services, replied that there were interns in IPID, 46 of them have been assigned to the investigative unit. Retention measures have been put in place so to motivate the interns. Currently there are no vacant positions in Limpopo as all the positions are filled. On the question on vehicles, IPIDs has three options, the cheapest option being where it may consider subsidized vehicles where the government pays 70% towards the installment and the officials pay 30% of the cost. In return, 70% of the travel expenses should be official and the rest is personal. The government will pay for the maintenance and insurance of the vehicle and after three years the vehicle’s ownership goes to the official.

Mr Mthethwa noted that the Committee should engage National Treasury on how IPID will operate moving forward and get answers on the rationale behind the budget cuts.

Mr McBride, IPID Executive Director, implored the Committee to assist with sorting out the expired lease and provide another building with a valid lease which is suitable for IPID’s purposes.

The meeting was adjourned.