Question NW1278 to the Minister of Finance
11 November 2019 - NW1278
Mente, Ms NV to ask the Minister of Finance
Whether the National Treasury allocated additional funding to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate in order to pay investigators in terms of the SA Police Services Act, Act 68 of 1995; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
Section 23 of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act (hereafter referred to as the IPID Act) (2011) provides that the conditions of service, including the salary and allowances payable to an investigator appointed under the IPID Act (2011), must be on par with members appointed as detectives in terms of the South African Police Service Act.
As part of the 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) Budget, funds were reprioritised from the South African Police Service (SAPS) to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to provide for various IPID unfunded cost pressures, amongst which was the implementation of section 23 of the IPID Act (2011). At the time of the allocation, the IPID had costed the prospective implementation of section 23 of the Act to amount to R9.3 million over the 2018 MTEF. Subsequent to the allocation of the additional funding, IPID then informed the National Treasury that in terms of the Court ruling, it was also required to implement section 23 retrospectively. This implies that the IPID was required to back-date the salary adjustment for investigators to align with the salaries of Detectives in SAPS, from when the Act was first implemented in 2012. As the budget process had already been concluded, no additional funds were allocated to the IPID.
Upon further engagements with the IPID on this matter, the National Treasury was informed that implementation of section 23 of the IPID Act (2011) did occur in 2018/19 but only as it relates to the prospective adjustment of salaries (notch increments) for investigators. Other salary-related adjustments such as pension liability and back-dated payments were not implemented due to the unavailability of funds.
As part of the 2019 Adjustments Budget, the IPID approached the National Treasury with a request to shift funds within compensation of employees to provide for the back-dated payment of pension liabilities for investigators. The National Treasury supported this proposal on condition that the IPID can accommodate the attendant carry-through costs associated with the revised pension contribution for investigators within its baseline.