IPID and PSIRA Annual Reports 2022/23; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed the Deputy Minister of Police, Mr Cassel Mathale. He noted that apologies had been received from the Minister as well as from Rev K Meshoe (ACDP), Dr P Groenewald (FF+) and Ms M Molekwa (ANC).  

The Chairperson said the office of the Auditor-General (AG) had already briefed the Committee on the clean audit opinion obtained by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID). He congratulated the Executive Director and the Deputy Minister for achieving this milestone. The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) had received an unqualified audit opinion with findings, which were based on an issue that needed to be resolved. PSIRA was working hard to remedy this issue and there was an expectation that in the next audit round, it would receive a clean audit. He congratulated PSIRA for the improvements since the previous audit.

The Deputy Minister thanked the Committee for its hard work. It was evident that it was paying off.

Mr O Terblanche (DA) pointed out that it had been agreed at the previous meeting that the National Commissioner of Police and his team would respond in writing to questions that were asked [but not answered in previous meetings]. He asked when the Committee could expect these responses.

The Committee Secretary confirmed that no responses had been received.

The Chairperson asked the Deputy Minister to resolve the matter.

The Deputy Minister said he would reach out to the Commissioner’s office to ensure that they complied.

IPID Annual Report 2022/23

Ms Jennifer Ntlatseng, Executive Director, IPID, said the Directorate obtained its first clean audit from the AG in 2022/23. The national staff establishment had 397 permanent positions. Only 180 were investigative positions. The Directorate continued reprioritising and regrouping functions to ensure optimal utilisation of the limited resources. As a result of these processes, the Directorate created five investigator positions. Three retired detectives were appointed on contract to assist with reducing backlog cases, and three quality assurers were appointed on contract to strengthen the quality of investigations. Currently, 639 cases have been assessed. Of these, 329 were nolle prosequi cases and 36 were taken for review by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). 

The recruitment and selection policy was reviewed, resulting in internal advertisements for level 5 to 12 positions. This assisted in creating job opportunities through internships and improved staff morale. By the end of September 2023, the vacancy rate was at seven percent. To date, there have been seven internal promotions and 20 interns have been appointed to entry-level positions. 

As part of supporting investigators, two vaccinations for Hepatitis B were administered to all investigators. A total of 20 vehicles were procured to capacitate investigations.

The  Directorate had increased its footprint in various provinces through collaboration with provincial directorates  of community safety. The areas which had seen improvement were Temba, Heidelberg, Westonaria and Mabopane in Gauteng; Port Shepstone, Port Dunford, Kwambonambi and Mkuze in KZN; and Kuruman, Springbok and Upington in the Northern Cape.

A  partnership was established with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to assist with conducting threat and risk management assessments. IPID signed an MOU with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners  (ACFE) to assist with professionalisation of the investigation environment. This resulted in five training programmes which commenced in  October 2023.

More than 250 departmental convictions involving 410 officers were secured, an increase from 239 in the 2021/22 financial year. More than 50 criminal convictions involving 65  officers were secured, which was also an increase from the 2021/22 financial year. Nationally, 128 officers were arrested in connection with 80 criminal incidents. By the end of the financial year, 807 cases were still in the court roll.

IPID was able to reach about 12 million South Africans through a three-month-long radio advert campaign. Live engagements were held with communities through the GCIS Community Radio Network. Three one-hour slots were live-streamed on 18 community media platforms. 

Mr Patrick Setshedi, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), provided insight into the applicable legislation when compiling the annual financial statements. He outlined the Directorate's budget capacity and the constraints they experienced. In 2021/22, the Directorate was unable to spend R5.8 million due to a delay in filling some of the positions. This area of spending improved in 2022/23.   

There was a virement to address some of the identified pressure areas. It was implemented through Section 43 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). There was no rollover for the period under review.

Regarding unauthorised expenditure, the Directorate prepared to present its case before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) next week. IPID’s predecessor, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), incurred this historic balance in 2006. A process was followed to ensure this balance was cleared. 

Regarding fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the Directorate reported a few transactions emanating from an overdue Telkom account and traffic fines incurred by some of the investigators. The amount of R9 000 was recovered from the officials. 

No new irregular expenditure was incurred. The irregular expenditure in the Directorate’s books originated from the previous financial year. Steps were being taken to approach the National Treasury for condonement of some transactions and to present some Directorate's own financial misconduct committee so that they could make a recommendation to the accounting officer for those figures to be addressed.

The  Directorate did not report any capital commitments. It was trying to spend all the funds allocated to each financial year. 

Mr Setshedi noted that there had previously been a problem with a huge number of accruals and payables at the close of the financial year. He was pleased to announce that the  Directorate had significantly reduced the number. Some cases were where accruals could not be avoided, but these were relatively insignificant.

Contingent liabilities had been identified as a risk area. Because the Directorate was so small, it was not expected to have a huge amount of contingent liability. The majority of the cases involved wrongful arrest allegations. These cases took long and once summonses were issued, there usually were no follow-ups from the complainants. The Directorate had since established a  policy to deal with all cases that were not followed up. In addition, the Directorate was engaging the various State Attorney offices. To date, they have visited eight offices in Durban, Polokwane, Thohoyandou, Bloemfontein, East  London, Mthatha, Pretoria and Johannesburg. 

Mr Setshedi said he was pleased that the AG was moving away from only focusing on financial statements and was now looking into service delivery activities. IPID had committed to look into the impact of their work in communities.  

Ms Suzan Letlape, Director: Strategy and Performance Monitoring, IPID, said the overall performance of the Directorate sat at 79 percent, with only seven targets that were not achieved.

Programme 1: Administration 

Performance fluctuated; Peak performance was 86 percent in 2021/22. In the period under review, it declined to 56 percent. Four targets were not met:

In implementing risk mitigation strategies, only 65 percent of the target was met against a planned target of 70 percent.

The youth representation target was 19 percent,but only 13 percent was achieved.This was due to a limited number of posts at salary levels 5 to 12 to attract young people. The recruitment for 14 positions that became vacant in  December 2022 was still in progress by the end of the financial year.

The target for the representation of persons living with disabilities was three percent but only two percent was achieved.

The Target for procurement of goods and services from women-owned enterprises was 30 percent. The Directorate achieved 26 percent. This was due to a bulk procurement of motor vehicles to the value of R7.1 million through National Treasury’s RT contract, but this policy has since been reviewed.

Programme 2: Investigation and information management

The performance improved from 77 percent to 92 percent. Only one target was not achieved, and this was for the investigation of corruption cases. This was due to the complexity of the investigations and the long time it took to complete the cases. The Directorate had since engaged with its internal unit, the National Specialised Investigative Unit, to assist the provinces that had a high number of these cases. 

During the period under review, the Directorate recorded a total of 10 274 new cases, a decline from 10 295 in 2021/22. The total number of investigated and completed cases was 3 973, of which 53 percent were backlog cases. The total workload was 46 433. This was a combination of active cases that the Directorate was expected to investigate during the period under review and cases that were decision-ready.  

A total of  2 277  recommendation reports were referred to the South African Police Service (SAPS). Of these, 1 483 were positive reports. The 794 negative ones were where SAPS members had been cleared but IPID recommended that additional disciplinary steps be taken. There were 43 referrals to municipal police services, of which 26 were positive and 17 negative. By the end of the reporting period, no feedback had been received on the negative referrals. 

Of the 794 negative recommendations to SAPS, 191 matters were initiated. IPID was still awaiting feedback on 378 matters. There were 257 disciplinary processes. Of these, 20 resulted in verbal warnings. There were 93 written warnings, 55 final written warnings, 32 salary suspensions, 40 dismissals and 17 referrals for corrective counselling. 

Of 2 093 criminal referrals forwarded to the NPA, the Directorate awaited feedback on 1 347. The NPA  declined to prosecute 683 of the cases and NPA prosecuted 53.  of these cases. Nine matters were withdrawn. The Directorate secured 53 convictions during the period under review. 

Programme 3: Legal and investigation advisory services

Performance declined to 75 percent. In the previous two years, it was 100 percent. One target was not met - the percentage of legal advice provided to investigators within two working days of receipt. The target was 12, the Directorate achieved 11. The reason for this was that the investigator did not receive the information within the stipulated time frame due to unavailability of officials in the office. Officials were now able to access emails from outside the office, so this challenge would not be encountered going forward. 

Programme 4: Compliance monitoring and stakeholder management

Performance was at 88 percent. The only indicator target that was missed was in the implementation of the Access and Awareness Rural Strategy. Only 29 percent was implemented as opposed to the 60 percent target. Some activities were delayed and could not be finalised by the end of the reporting period. The Directorate has since ensured collaboration in the two programmes responsible for the activities in the implementation plan. 

Ms Ntlatseng said in conclusion that the Directorate would continue to address internal control deficiencies. Engagement and collaboration would continue to expand IPID’s footprint, and the Directorate would continue to reprioritise the limited resources to ensure optimal service delivery. 

PSIRA Annual Report 2022/23

Mr Manabela Chauke, CEO, PSIRA, said that PSIRA had received an unqualified audit opinion. They had a surplus of R69.7 million and a current ratio of 2.07:1. PSIRA achieved 84 percent of its annual targets in 2022/23.

PSIRA conducted 7 236 business inspections and 36 406 security officer inspections in 2022/23. It made 991 arrests in 106 operations during the year.  

Over 2 000 inspections were conducted at businesses that utilised firearms. A total of  859 prosecutions were successfully finalised and fines totalling R14 million were imposed for improper conduct convictions. More than 220 000 security officers and 2 050 security businesses were registered in  2022/23. 

Mr Chauke outlined PSIRA’s responses to the Portfolio Committee recommendations that steps be taken to ensure that it remained a sustainable organisation.

PSIRA had made submissions on the strategy for implementing the Levies Administration Bill and provided the National Treasury with the financial data to determine the proposed levy percentage to be prescribed under the Private Security Industry Levies Bill. The National Treasury aimed to retable the Bills in the 2023/24 financial year.

PSIRA implemented cost containment without compromising key service deliverables. It intensified annual fee collections and interest charges on overdue accounts through appointed debt collectors. It also introduced a digital services platform which further reduced the registration and renewal costs.

PSIRA continued conducting compliance inspections on firearm usage by security service providers, and where non-compliance was identified, SAPS removed those weapons. The Authority also instituted a code of conduct inquiries into non-compliant security service providers. 

Mr Chauke briefed the Committee on progress in achieving strategic outcomes in the period 2020 to 2025. The first target was to obtain an unqualified audit. A second was to ensure the Authority’s liquidity was solid, and this had improved to R2.07:1   

The target was to maintain an organisational performance rating of 80 percent. This had progressed to 84 percent.

One target not achieved was the development of a transformation index for the private security industry. The Authority had appointed a service provider to ensure they were well on their way to achieving a transformation charter to present to the Minister.

Another target was compliance by the private security industry with prescripts and standards. There had been an upward progression from 86 percent in 2020/21 to 89 percent in 2022/23. By the end of the five years, it should be above 90 percent.

Another area was to improve the baseline for audits of the quality of training and assessments. PSIRA had launched an online platform to assess the training and professionalise the industry. Some training had been revised and new training had been introduced.

Ms Talent Zwane, Deputy Director: Law Enforcement, PSIRA, briefed the Committee on performance per programme. 

Programme 1: Administration

The Authority managed to implement all audit actions and complied with the necessary statutory report requirements in order to receive an unqualified audit opinion.

It implemented 82 percent of the approved strategic risk mitigation plan against a target of 90 percent. There were delays in appointing service providers.

PSIRA achieved all the targets under the corporate services sub-programme.

The Authority completed five research reports and five surveys in the industry research and development sub-programme. There were delays in submitting a transformation charter for the security industry for approval. This was due to a lack of positive responses to tenders for appointing a service provider to develop the charter.

Programme 2: Law enforcement

All the targets were achieved. More than 7 000 security businesses were inspected and 51  percent of active businesses completed compliance self-assessments. Ninety-eight percent of complaints against security providers were finalised.

Programme 3: Training and communication

The target of 200 accredited instructors was exceeded by 120. The target of 20 percent of learners completing online external assessments was not met because of a lack of response to tenders for a service provider. The target of 70 stakeholder awareness workshops was achieved,

Programme 4: Registration

The average turnaround time for registration of applications was three days, against a target of four. The turnaround time for registration of applicants was 38 days against a target of 12. This was because of challenges in implementing a new online portal.

Financial performance

Mr Jacob Makgolane, Corporate Secretary, PSIRA, outlined steps taken to address findings in the audit opinion. These concerned UIF liability and lack of contract management; misstatement of revenue; and irregular expenditure. He said the measures included training, enhanced internal controls and system improvements to ensure data integrity.

PSIRA’s total revenue increased by R44 million to R452.4 million,. Expenditure increased by R63 million to 382.7 million. The surplus for the year was R69 million, a decrease from the previous year. Total Assets increased by R99 million to R363.4 million. Provision for bad debts decreased by R13 million to R80.9 million. Annual fees remained the main contributor to revenue.

(See slide presentation for details)

Mr Makgolane said PSIRA maintained regular, accurate, and complete financial and performance reports and continued implementing record document management systems. They continued to review their compliance checklist and monitor effectiveness of internal controls. Performance management systems were in place.  

Discussion

Ms M Gomba (ANC) congratulated both entities. They had good financial systems put in place and expenditure did not exceed revenue. She commended them for spending their money according to the budget. She also noted their improvement on matters of emphasis in their audit opinions.

Mr O Terblanche (DA) congratulated IPID for their clean audit. There were some concerns. The Directorate achieved only 74 percent of its targets, with the largest decline being in its administration. There was underspending in the budget for personnel, yet they often complained that they did not have the workforce to complete their tasks. He asked who benefited from the purchase of vehicles as the Department did not have the staff headcount to justify that. There was significant overspending on advertising. Why was the Department overspending in this area when there was a clear lack of expenditure in other areas? Did National Treasury approve the over-expenditure? Civil claims against IPID were increasing each year. Did the budget cater for this?

He commended the allocation of money for Youth Development. He asked for clarity on what the programme involved and on who approved this expenditure.

Mr Terblanche pointed out that IPID had over 46 000 cases that had built up over the years and it would be impossible for the Directorate to work through this caseload in the next 20 to 30 years. This required serious intervention. He expressed his concern about an NPA statement that IPID’s investigations lacked quality. What did IPID intend to do to improve the quality of their investigations?

 

Regarding PSIRA, Mr Terblanche pointed out that 911 arrests were made and of those, there were 859  prosecutions. Did any convictions result from the prosecutions? PSIRA was looking to intensify law enforcement around firearms particularly. Were any of the arrests or convictions thus far related to firearms?

 

Was the new training relevant? He noted that Mr Wahl Bartmann had said recently that it was becoming increasingly difficult for cash in transit services to be conducted as trained people with assault rifles and explosives posed a challenge. How was PSIRA handling the training in this regard?

Mr B Golding (DA) congratulated IPID on their audit result. He said that currently, IPID  did not have a very high vacancy rate, and this indicated that their resource allocation guide  (RAG) was based on too few staff. In order to provide assistance, the Committee needed to understand what the Directorate's needs were. He asked if the Committee could get an age breakdown of the 46 000 cases. In the medium term, the Committee would seek to capacitate IPID from a budgetary point of view, but to do that, they required a needs analysis. What was the reason for the R5 million under-expenditure? 

In terms of the actual caseload, there were certain areas where the targets were not being met. Over  60 percent of the cases being investigated were assault cases. Mr Golding asked for a breakdown of the assault cases, specifically between common assault and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). The target on corruption in programme two was not reached. This was a cause for concern. He asked how the Directorate intended to improve capacity in this area, because this was a much larger and impactful issue than common assault. Were other agencies assisting the Department here? 

Mr Golding asked PSIRA for clarity on the R30 million allocated to training that was not provided. The AG had also indicated that there was irregular expenditure of R79 million, a lot of which seemed to be tied to supply-chain controls and procedures. What steps are being taken here? 

With regards to their compliance inspections, PSIRA made mention of inspections into minimum wage and firearms compliance. Were the companies hired to do these investigations accredited? He asked the Authority to unpack the operations, arrests and prosecutions. He congratulated them for getting their system online. He asked if they would now be doing regular criminal record checks on registered members and what the sanctions were.   

Mr Terblanche expressed concern about deaths in police custody. He asked what plan there was to curb this. Police and community service workers should be able to identify injuries that are so serious that arrested persons could die during their detention. He asked how the Directorate planned to address the issue of police officers raping people while on and off duty. 

Responses

Ms Ntlatseng said challenges around underspending on personnel were a result of IPID relying on third parties to assist with the process of checking qualifications and possible criminal records of the people they wanted to appoint. The Directorate had purchased a system that would improve the turnaround time of quality checks. What used to take up to two months to check, now took between 48 and 72 hours. The  Directorate had experienced a high staff attrition rate, but a policy was implemented to improve staff morale through internal promotions. However, as promotions increased so did the vacancy rate. The Directorate was moving quickly on this.  

The overspending on advertising was for advertising vacant positions, which was unavoidable because many people left the Directorate for greener pastures.

The vehicles bought were for the investigators as the Directorate’s fleet of vehicles was quite old. The approval of the funds was done jointly with National Treasury. 

Regarding civil claims against the Directorate, Ms Ntlatseng pointed out that IPID was often cited as the second person in lawyers’ letters. The Directorate had approached the state attorneys to negotiate with them. The R111 million in civil claims had decreased to R96 million. A team had been established to deal with these contingent liabilities. There were also many cases where the complainant no longer sought to pursue the claim. 

The focus on employing young people has improved. To date, 20 interns have been employed.

Ms Ntlatseng acknowledged that there was a  large caseload. The Directorate had employed three retired detectives to assist with the backlog. In response to the NPA claiming the Directorate Investigations lacked quality, she said they had developed a quality assurance framework and employed three quality assurers. She hoped that as more funding was received, the Directorate would be able to employ more.  

On deaths in custody, she said the police did inspections prior to detaining people to ensure they did not carry anything on their person that could allow such incidents to occur. For instance, police officers removed shoelaces from arrested persons to prevent suicide.

Regarding the expenditure on advertising, Mr Setshedi said the Directorate had embarked on a radio campaign in conjunction with GCIS to communicate IPID’s mandate and how their services could be accessed in rural areas. The feedback was positive in both community and commercial spheres. If the budget allowed, the Directorate would continue this campaign. 

Ms Letlape commented on the issue raised by Mr Terblanche about deaths in police custody and rapes by police officers. Programme 4 included station lectures where the Directorate addressed any issues identified at the station. In addition, when stations were being investigated and the contributing factors were found to be related to internal controls, the  Directorate issued policy recommendations to SAPS.  

Mr Chauke said PSIRA’s training systems that were coming online would include a cash-in-transit curriculum. However, there would always be a risk of robberies in this sector. 

Mr Chauke confirmed that the PSIRA did assist with checking criminal records after the fact, but the biggest issue here was the legislation. They were waiting for the President to sign the amended PSIRA Act which would allow PSIRA to review all regulations. However, PSIRA constantly reviewed the records of those who re-registered and those who had had complaints filed against them. 

Ms  Zwane said 991 people were arrested in 106 operations. The offences usually concerned people who were not registered to work as security officers and undocumented foreign nationals who were often found on the sites. The Authority had a 100 percent prosecution rate for non-compliant security service providers. They received hefty fines. In the past financial year, fines totalling R14 million were issued and  203 companies had their licences withdrawn. Inspections were done at sites to see if security officers were registered. The  Authority was conducting inspections at mines because there had been problems there. Special operations units had been established to conduct inspections at night and on weekends. 

Mr Makgolane explained that the issue of irregular expenditure arose out of contracts with service providers for an Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) training project. The UIF provided the Authority with a list of service providers they needed to appoint at the start of this project. The correct process was not followed in appointing them. The due diligence process required PSIRA to ensure that the service providers were registered in terms of PSIRA’s training regulations. The UIF lacked due diligence in this process but because the contract fell under the Authority, the irregular expenditure fell into their lap. The project started in 2019 but due to the delays that COVID-19 caused, the Authority was only able to commence the project in 2022. The Authority would ensure that due diligence would be conducted regardless of whether service providers were appointed through a third party. The training plan should be completed by December. 

Further discussion

The Chairperson asked if it was normal for a department to give another department money and then to dictate who would be appointed. Were the departments so desperate for this funding that they allowed others to dictate their employment practices? 

The annual reports indicated that the areas where there was low performance mostly concerned transformation. What were the challenges?  

He noted that the problem of understaffing at IPID would be there for some time and the case backlog would be there for the foreseeable future. Should IPID not create its own pool of investigators to deal with the backlog? He asked that they submit an ideal mandate to the Committee to see how the Committee could assist them. How would the Ministry assist IPID to deal with its backlogs?

Mr Terblanche asked PSIRA to clarify how many people were prosecuted for firearm-related offences. He also asked IPID if their assessments of deaths in detention took into account the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Responses

Ms Ntlatseng agreed that the creation of their own pool of investigators was a creative option, but IPID would have to look into their budget to accommodate this. The Directorate was trying to attract retired detectives and there had been significant headway in this area. The backlog was worrying, and they were trying their best to deal with it.

Mr Makgolane said it was not normal for other entities to dictate the Directorate's staff intake. The Directorate should have done due diligence on what the UIF did in the procurement process. The lapse was due to the fact that PSIRA thought that the UIF had followed due process. Going forward, any third party contracting would be subjected to due diligence. 

Mr Chauke said a transformation analysis was done for the entire security sector and findings were made that PSIRA sought to elevate to the level of a transformation charter. This process was very difficult because of the skills and expertise required.

Mr Chauke asked if the request made by Mr Terblanche could be answered in writing by the following Monday. 

Ms Ntlatseng said that inspection tools had been developed to monitor police cells. The Directorate would strive to address the concerns the Committee raised and achieve their targets.

The meeting was adjourned.