Question NW1258 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
17 May 2022 - NW1258
Msimang, Prof CT to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
With regard to the recent media statement which states that his department has been facing challenges with shortfalls in the allocation of inmate uniforms particularly for remand detainees which is a concern as the wearing of civilian clothes by inmates can create a security risk by making it difficult to distinguish between inmates and civilians working inside a correctional centre, (a) how has his department amended the procurement processes in order to resolve the uniform issue and (b) what additional training for staff has been rolled out to rectify the (i) shortage of staff with procurement skills and/or (ii) lack of familiarity with procurement processes that were also listed as a challenge?
Reply:
(a) A procedure manual has been developed as a tool to assist the officials working at the detention facilities to understand the requirements with regard to the implementation of section 48 (Clothing) of the Correctional Services Act. The procedure manual serves to make provision for consistent standards in terms of issuing, assigning and receiving of remand detainee uniforms and to ensure uniformity within the department.
On a yearly basis, Regions submit their needs for the next financial year, for the ordering of remand detainees’ uniform. It is acknowledged that the uniform for Remand Detainees is not sufficient to cater for all remand detainees due to lack of funding. Since 2019 the budget for Remand Detainees uniform was drastically reduced on an annual basis. In 2019/2020 an amount of R40 049 000.00 was allocated for Remand Detainees uniform. In 2020/2021, an amount of R15 800 000 was allocated and in 2021/2022 an amount of R17 900 000.00 was allocated. The budget is further reduced to R9,5 million for 2022/23 financial year. With the reduced budget the challenge of shortages for Remand Detainees Uniform is going to be even bigger in 2022/23 as the required quantities to be submitted to the National Treasury will also be reduced due to budget cuts.
The provision of uniform to remand detainees has been prioritised and included in the 2022/23 Annual Operational Plan (AOP) with a monthly target of 90%..
(b)(i)(ii) The Department has identified the need for training officials in supply Chain Management and the need was for the past two years among top priorities. During the financial year 2020/21 a total of twenty-three (23) officials received training in Supply Chain Management and a total of forty-one (41) officials were also trained in 2021/22. Training was concluded in all Regions and the Department has again in 2022/23 placed Supply Chain Management training as one of the top training priorities where the number of officials to be trained will be increased.
END.