We have noted that the Department is not supportive of our suggestions in regard to the remuneration of the Deputy Public Protector and wish to comment on/the reasons provided by the Deputy Minister, as follows:

1. The position of Deputy Public Protector was established by the provisions of section 3 of the original text of the Public Protector Ad, 1994 (the Act). It provided for the appointment of a Deputy Public Protector by the President from candidates nominated by a joint committee, after consultation with the Public Protector, and approved by the National I Assembly and the Senate by a resolution adopted by at least 75% of the members present and voting.
2. When the Ad was amended in 1998, to bring it in line with the 1996 Constitution, section 3 was changed to provide for the appointment of the Deputy Public Protector by the Minister of Justice. We were concerned about the negative impact that this process could have on the public perception regarding the independence of the Office of the Public Protector, and made submissions to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development to have the original process of appointment reinstated.
3. The Public Protector Amendment Act of 2003 inserted section 2A in the Act and provides that the President, on the recommendation of the National Assembly, appoints the Deputy Public Protector.
4. Since the Office of the Public Protector was formally established on 1 October 1995, no Deputy Public Protector has been appointed. The Office has developed and expanded over the years to the extent that a Deputy Public Protector is urgently required.

2. The Chief Executive Officer and Accounting in Officer f the Office of the Public Protector

2.1 Section 3(1) of Act established the position of Chief Administrative Officer in he Office of the Public Protector "for the purpose of assisting the Public Protector with all financial, administrative and clerical functions..."

2.2 The Chief Administrative Officer was appointed at the level of a Director in the Public Service and became the accounting officer of the Office, by virtue of section 4 of the Act.

2.3 Expansion of the institution resulted in a substantial increase in the staff complement and we had to establish several sections to attend to our growing needs. As appears from the Organisational Structure of the Office (see Annexure B) we were advised to create a Corporate Services Branch, which currently consist of Financial Management Services, Human source Management, Administrative Support Services and communication Services. Each of these sections is headed by a Director. The original position of Chief Administrative Officer was 'converted' to the position of Head: Administrative Support Services. This position is therefore not that of a Chief Executive Officer. The Incumbent however still acts as the accounting officer in terms of a temporary arrangement with National Treasury, until the Deputy Public Protector is appointed.

2.4 is therefore not totally correct that the appointment of the Deputy Public Protector is, "inconsistent with the PFMA" in particular having regards to the provisions of section 36(3) of the PFMA. It must be stated also that the current Chief Financial Officer is not a lawyer and the core functions of the Office of the Public Protector is investigations of complaints with resultant report writing as well as making specific commendations. The legal qualifications as confirmed in the Public Protector Act bear testimony to what is stated above.

5. As regards the Deputy Public Protector also serving as the Chief Executive officer, the office is currently in the process of formulating a five year Strategic Plan and once adopted, the organizational structure will have to re1aligned to it and at this stage we are still considering the proposal from the Deputy Minister that Deputy Public Protector cannot serve as Chief Executive Officer.

3. The remuneration of the Deputy Public Protector

3. The provisions of section 2A(4) of the Act determined the requirements for a person to be appointed as Deputy Public Protector, It provides that:

(d) has, for a cumulative period of at least ten years, been a member of Parliament; or

No such requirements apply in respect of the Members, Chairpersons or Deputy Chairpersons of any of the other institutions referred to. Persons qualified to be nominated for the position of Deputy Public Protector are obviously in a high-income group and would not be interested in nomination if the remuneration of the Deputy Public Protector is not determined at an acceptable level.

1. The suggestion of the Department that the Deputy Public Protector is remunerated at the level of a Chief Director in the Public service would mean that he/she would receive remuneration similar to that of the two Control Investigators of my Office. Clearly this would be an unacceptable situation and not be in the interest of the credibility of the approved organisational structure of the Institution.
2. It is for the reasons referred to above that it was proposed that the said Parliamentary Committee determines the level of remuneration of the Deputy Public Protector as that of a Judge of the High Court.

We trust that the above will be of some assistance to you and the Committee and are looking forward to deliberate further on the issue, should we be provided with an opportunity to do so.

Yours5 faithfully