Question NW3796 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
05 January 2024 - NW3796
Steenhuisen, Mr JH to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
With regard to the several observations and recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State regarding the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the fight against grand corruption, in giving effect to these, by what total amount has the annual budget of the NPA and specifically, the Investigating Directorate, been increased and/or supplemented to facilitate a more effective crime fighting operation?
Reply:
The NPA budget allocation increased by 5.39% over the MTEF period, from R4,9 billion to R5,7 billion in order to capacitate the NPA to deal with State Capture cases and the fight against corruption. This increase was as a result of the R1.3 billion additional funding allocated to the NPA during the 2022 MTEF.
However, the increase was against a background of an inadequate budget where the ratio of compensation to operational costs was 85:15. The budget increase improved the ratio to 77:33 which was soon reversed to 83:17 due to the virement to deal with the shortfall in the Compensation of Employees (CoE) budget, after the NPA had to absorb the Cost of Living Adjustment (CoLA) from its baseline and the ID, as part of the NPA, was also impacted.
The ID budget allocation increased by 11.60% from R243 million to R308 million over the MTEF period. However, this increase is below inflation and in fact, the budget has actually decreased, in real terms.
.