Question NW1473 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
24 May 2018 - NW1473
Schmidt, Adv H to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
Whether, with reference to the reply of the President, Mr C M Ramaphosa, to the debate on the State of the Nation Address on 22 February 2018 to implement lifestyle audits, (a) he, (b) senior management service members in his department and/or (c) any of the heads of entities reporting to him have undergone a lifestyle audit in the past three financial years; if not, have any plans been put in place to perform such audits; if so, in each case, what are the details of the (i) date of the lifestyle audit, (ii) name of the person undergoing the audit, (iii) name of the auditing firm conducting the audit and (iv) outcome of the audit; (2) whether he will furnish Adv H C Schmidt with copies of the lifestyle audit reports?
Reply:
b) I have been informed that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has not conducted general lifestyle audits in relation to senior management. We have limited our policies and procedures to vetting processes and identification of risk, based on declarations of interest.
In terms of statistics relating to incidents of fraud and corruption, it seems that the risk exposure to the Department is not at senior management level but rather at middle management and lower levels and in specific in specialised environments.
The Department is in the process of reviewing its fraud and anti-corruption strategy and will consider such for inclusion in these specific environments.
c) The entities have reported as follows:
(i) National Prosecuting Authority: No lifestyle audits have been conducted in the NPA in the past three (3) financial years. Currently, there are no plans in place to conduct lifestyle audits.
(ii) Legal Aid South Africa: No, the Chief Executive Officer of Legal Aid South Africa as the executive head has not been subjected to a lifestyle audit for the past three (3) years.
However, the Internal Audit Department of Legal Aid South Africa conducted lifestyle audits for the past three financial years based on an assessment of potential risks from employees who are in direct interaction with clients or are handling financial transactions of the organization. The audits cover the following categories of staff, namely: Legal Practitioners; Paralegals and Administration Managers. In the 2018/19 financial year, a lifestyle audit is planned of all persons involved in procurement at national and provincial level, and will include members of the Bid Adjudication Committee and Bid Evaluation Committee.
(iii) Special Investigating Unit: Prior to the appointment of the Head of the Special Investigating Unit, Advocate JL Mothibi was subjected to a Vetting Process by the State Security Agency before he resumed his duty on the 1 May 2016.