REPORT
OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON CORRECTIONAL SERVICES ON ANNUAL REPORT AND
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONAL SERVICES FOR 2005/06,
DATED
The
Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services, having considered the Annual
Report and Financial Statements of the Department of Correctional Services for
2005/06,
reports as follows:
A. Introduction
The Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services has
scrutinised the Annual Report of the Department of Correctional Services for
2005/06,
including the Report of the Auditor General.
The Portfolio Committee had the following meetings to
discuss the 2005/06 Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Department of
Correctional Services (DCS):
·
Deliberations with
National Treasury on Legislative Oversight through Annual Reports of
Departments as well as Research Analysis of the 2005/6 Annual Report of the
DCS.
·
Formal deliberations
and assessment on the Audit Report of the Auditor General on the 2005/6 Annual
Report of the DCS; financial performance and expenditure of the DCS for
2005/6.
·
Hearings with the
Department of Correctional Services on the 2005/6 Annual Report of the DCS.
B. Findings and Key issues of Concern:
The Portfolio Committee notes the following key issues:
1. Deliberations
with National Treasury on Legislative Oversight through Annual Reports of
Departments.
·
The role of
Portfolio Committees was clearly indicated in this guideline and it was
emphasised that it is the duty of the Committee to question the DCS on any
irregularities that comes to the Committees attention.
·
The Committee agreed
that the interaction with the National Treasury was empowering, but wanted to
know whether the Executive is aware of the guidelines by Treasury on how to
analyse Annual Reports of Departments, as it appears that the Department is not
aware of this.
2. Research
Analysis of the 2005/6 Annual Report of the DCS.
·
The Research
Analysis identified many shortcomings in the structure of the Annual Report. It
does not report on all the targets as set out in the Strategic Plan and in many cases it was unclear as to whether the targets
had been met or not.
·
Programme 1: Administration: The DCS has developed an Integrated Human Resource
Strategy to address recruitment, retention of scarce skills and the quality of
performance management and development systems.
Equity
and Recruitment: It is
unclear as to what the targets are for gender and racial equity in the
DCS.
Vacancies: The overall
vacancy rate for the Department for 2005/06 was 7.8%. This is an increase from
the previous year where the vacancy rate was 7.3%. The DCS thus did not meet their target to
decrease the vacancy rate.
Performance
rewards and promotions: An
interim promotion model was developed, negotiated and implemented. The
target for 2005/06 was to finalise the career pathing models (i.e. the
promotion model). It seems as if this
target was not met, as the promotion model is an interim one.
Skills
and training: The DCS
has embarked on a skills audit to identify existing skills and skills required.
Disciplinary
and corruption cases:
68% of the 359 corruption and fraud related cases registered for 2005/6 were
finalised. The DCS is implementing the anti-corruption strategy in partnership
with the Special Investigation Unit
(SIU) and the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO).
Vetting
of officials: 50% of
all officials should have been vetted, but only the officials from the
Financial
Management: The
fact that DCS has received a qualified audit opinion from
the Auditor General for the past 5 years makes it clear that there are
financial management problems in the Department.
Review
of policies: The
DCS is in the process of reviewing policies and procedures to bring them in
line with the White Paper.
· Programme
2 Security:
Unnatural
Deaths and assaults: Both
the number of unnatural deaths in prison and the number of assaults decreased
in 2005/06 in comparison with the previous year.
Escapes: The number of escapes decreased substantially from 171
in 2004/05 to 112 in 2005/6, however escapes has become increasingly violent.
The decrease in escapes is attributed to the installation of new security equipment,
training of officials and the development of a strategy to deal with escapes.
Security
Plan: The Security
Management Policy and Minimum Security Standards for Correctional Services were
approved during 2005/06.
Security
Infrastructure: Access
control equipment was installed in 66 Correctional Centres at a cost of R88
million.
·
Programme 3 Corrections:
Centres
of Excellence: The 36
Centres of Excellence (6 in all 6 regions) were launched in 2005/06. A project manager has been appointed to
ensure optimum performance of the C of E.
Unit
Management: The
Report does not state whether the DCS has completed and approved a national
resource provisioning plan with regard to identifying the necessary resources
required to implement unit management at the various centres.
Risk
assessment, profiling and sentence plans: The
2005/06 Report states that the target of using the risk assessment and offender
profile tool for 23% of offenders was not met, but it does state that the tools were developed
during 2005/06 (in draft form).
Offender
Rehabilitation Path: The
Offender Rehabilitation Path (ORP) was developed which outlines a process to be
followed from admission to release, including reintegration into the community,
in line with the White Paper on Corrections.
Overcrowding: In March 2006, the total inmate population was 150 302
in comparison with 180 335 in April 2005.
However, the approved offender capacity was only 114 796 and thus there
was still a 76.6% rate of overpopulation.
·
Programme 4 Care:
Social work,
psychological and spiritual sessions for inmates: The DCS reached its targets in terms psychological
sessions and spiritual care sessions, whilst the number of social work sessions
dropped.
Pharmacies: 18 community service pharmacists were allocated to DCS
in 2005/06. The Department of Health
facilitated registration, listing and licensing of DCS pharmacies to ensure
compliance with the new pharmacy legislation.
HIV/AIDS: The target for training of 420 inmates as master
trainers and peer educators for HIV/AIDS awareness was surpassed and 1 254
inmates were trained. The targets for training correctional officials including
health care workers of 1 160 trained officials were not met and only 355
officials were trained
·
Programme 5 Development:
Implementation
of new policies and procedures:
Development policies and procedures were to be implemented at 50% of all
management areas prioritising the C of E. The procedures have been developed
but not implemented.
Education: According to the Report, the target for the number of
inmates participating in formal education programmes was not met due to the
special remissions
Skills
Development:
According to the Report, the reason why only 8 502 offenders (in comparison with a target of 21 000) participated in skills development programmes in 2005
was due to the late receipt of funds from the Department of Labour. In 2004/05,
15 004 offenders participated in these programmes.
Work
opportunities: Only 3 400 internal work opportunities were provided to
inmates in comparison to a target of 32 700.
·
Programme 6 Social Reintegration:
Community
Corrections: The Report states that the target of reducing the number of probationers and parolees
per supervisory officer to 30 was not achieved.
In addition, only 10.3% of absconders were traced in comparison with a
target of more than 36%.
Correctional
Supervision and Parole Boards:
The DCS developed Directives involving Complainants Involvement in Correctional
Supervision and Parole Boards (CSPB). The DCS also developed a Service Charter
and Minimum Standards for Victims. The
Boards did not reach the target of placement of 55% of cases before it under
correctional supervision. The Report
attributes this to longer sentencing patterns. The chairpersons and vice
chairpersons of the 52 boards nationwide were inaugurated in 2005/06.
·
Programme 7 Facilities:
New
Prisons:
According to the Strategic Plan, 4 new prisons should be completed by 2006/7,
but this target will not be reached, because of major setbacks during 2005/6.
The Annual Report does not report back on the target in terms of the second
group of 4 prisons, which
referred to the completion of a feasibility study.
Maintenance: Only 15% of prisons were audited with regard to minimum standards and norms during 2005/6 compared to the target of 25% that were
to be audited.
Own
Resources: Own
Resources refers to the use of offenders in maintenance work in prison. The DCS was meant to have approved a policy
in this regard during 2005/06 and establish capacity building for the
implementation of this policy.
3. Formal
deliberations on the 2005/6 Audit Report of
Auditor General and the financial performance and expenditure trends of the DCS.
In a meeting with the Office of the Auditor General (AG) and
National Treasury: Directorate: Correctional Services, the following key issues
were highlighted:
3.1
Key issues of concern raised by the Auditor General:
·
The DCS attributes its problems with internal control on problems with its
information system (computer systems and programmes) and says that it can only
address these problems once the systems have been attended to.
·
However in the
opinion of the AGs office, the problem is not with the information system. The
problem lies with the fact that while DCS has a Compliance Management Policy,
this policy is poorly monitored and there are poor controls at the lower levels
(i.e. in prisons, areas, and regions) where incorrect information is fed to
Head Office. In the opinion of the AG,
if lower level supervision was properly performed (i.e. the information was
monitored by supervisors at all these levels), then the information could be
more verifiable. The problem lies with
monitoring and DCS needs to ensure compliance before reports are sent to Head
Office.
·
The AGs office has
stated that there are at least 3 Qualifications in this report which can be
resolved by the end of 2006 to ensure that they do not result in Qualifications
in the next audit.
·
The monitoring and
review processes at institutional, area and regional level is the main problem
facing DCS which leads to poor audit performance.
·
According to the AG,
while Regional Commissioners try to attend Audit Committee meetings, the Accounting Officer must attend these meetings as
well as the Chief Deputy Commissioners.
·
The lack of
financial skills in DCS was identified as a problem.
·
Public Private
Partnerships Prisons (APOPS): The AGs office is adamant that the APOPS lease
should be identified as finance and not an operating lease and this opinion has
been substantiated by 2 other independent auditors. According to Treasury, it
may be because DCS has an incorrect understating of the powers of accounting
officers to sign a finance lease (they may in fact sign a finance lease for a
PPP).
·
Public Private
Partnerships Prisons (APOPS): The DCS told the AG that they will set up a
meeting with themselves, Treasury and the AG to resolve the disagreement over
the operating versus finance lease issue.
To date (10 months into the new financial year), they have not done so.
In the opinion of the AG, these matters should have been resolved in 2005 and
should not have resulted in a qualification.
·
Asset Management:
The AG raised the concern that the problems with Asset Management began as a
Matter of Emphasis as early as 2002/03 and turned into a Qualification in
2005/06, because the problem was not seriously addressed by DCS
during the interim period.
·
The AGs office
believes that the problems with asset management can be addressed before the
integrated system comes on line, by DCS being aware of the information that is required
and then putting in place processes to address this.
·
According to the AG, the Provisioning
Administration System (PAS) can
reconcile differences between Basic
Accounting System (BAS) and the Web Asset Tool (WAT). This is not
done at regular intervals at area and regional level. The AG is of the opinion that this is achievable.
·
Medkor: The problem
identified with Medkor relating to amounts paid on face value was identified
last year and not rectified. This year,
the problem is compounded by the fact that the DCS cannot identify who its
current and continuation members are. In
the opinion of the AG, this problem with the database of current and
continuation members is easy to rectify and should have been sorted out by DCS
before the end of the 2005/06 audit as it just needs
commitment and manpower. In the opinion of the AG,
this should not have escalated to a Qualification.
·
Medkor: The AGs
office said that they asked for the involvement of the internal audit committee
to resolve the problem with the medical aids specifically the checking of the
database, but DCS stated that they did not have enough staff to
do this.
·
Medkor: The AGs
office says the problem with the medical aid database may have arisen because
DCS does not have contracts with the medical aids.
·
Employee benefits
and Leave: The AG stated that lack of
skills and capacity in the Human Resources division is
a serious problem. The AG also said that they have informed the DCS that this Emphasis of Matter will escalate to a
Qualification if they do not take urgent steps to address the problem.
·
Supply chain
management: The AGs office has stated that the response of DCS to the concerns
that it raised over contracts and the level of sign off were ‘wishy washy’ and
that there was little detail in the response.
The Special Investigation Unit is addressing some of these
concerns.
3.2 Key
issues of concern raised by National Treasury
·
Treasury has noted
with concern the fact that the DCS has stated that it has problems dealing with
National Treasury and that Treasury has been unhelpful. It also notes as inaccurate, the statement in
the Report that Treasury turned down enhancements to the asset management
system. In fact, the decision
not to authorise enhancements in this regard was a Cabinet and not a Treasury decision.
·
Treasury has noted
that the DCS spending during the 2005/06 financial year is erratic.
·
It was also noted
that the end of the
financial year expenditure (March 2006) is very high
(18.2% of the total budget) in
comparison to other months.
·
According to
Treasury more appointments of administrative and other support staff under the Public Service Act could result in about R40 million savings each year
on pensions alone
·
There is a huge downward trend in expenditure on training in
2005/06 considering the problems with skills in the DCS. The
Head Office and Free State/Northern Cape region were the only 2 areas where the
expenditure on training increased and all other areas experienced
a decrease in expenditure.
4. Hearings
with the DCS on the 2005/6 Annual Report and Financial Statements of the DCS.
The following are key areas of concern raised by the
Committee on the Annual report
and the responses of the Department.
4.1 Auditor General Report
·
The DCS received a qualified
audit opinion by the Auditor General for the 5th
year in a row and the most audit qualifications in government for this
financial year.
The
Department of Correctional Services (DCS), Treasury and the AG’s office
agreed that the key problem is that there are poor
monitoring systems in place at a prison, area, and regional level to ensure
that the information that is fed upwards to Head Office is correct. DCS explained that because of the legacy of
problems inherited in DCS it has been difficult to deal with the resultant
problems, while at the same time ensuring that the Department continues to
function in its daily duties. DCS
provided input at the meeting with the Portfolio Committee on ways in which it
is improving its monitoring and reviewing processes as well as the
financial management training of its employees.
4.2 Key
areas of concern in the AG report and the response of DCS included:
·
APOPS: APOPS was indicated as an operating lease and not a
financial lease in the Annual Report. The DCS has now agreed with the AG that the R195 million is
a financial lease and
this will be indicated in the next Annual report. .
·
Staff debt: Debtors records – the DCS will review these records in
order to have debt written off for deceased members and will also look at how other departments deal with the issue of recovering debt and may use an external agency to assist in addressing
this problem.
·
Asset Management:
DCS wants to implement the system used by the Department of Justice and will speak to Treasury about this in order to reconcile
its records.
·
Medical expenditure:
A Project
Manager will be appointed
to monitor medical expenditure. The DCS is trying
to address problems in the database without relying on the database from the
administrator. The DCS
has embarked on a process called Integrated Corporate System and places regular
advertisements in newspapers calling on continuation members to register.
·
Housing loan
guarantees: An Action plan has been drawn up and the DCS will
look at improving capacity in the
Human Resources section.
·
Audit Committee
meetings: The DCS stated that it is not always possible for the Accounting
Officer to attend these meetings, but the Chief Deputy Commissioners do attend
these meetings where possible.
4.3
Performance
The
Committee has raised a number of key concerns especially with regard to the number of performance targets were not met for
2005/06. These include:
·
Vetting of
correctional officials: 50% of officials in high risk centres should have been
vetted last year and were only vetted in
The DCS
mentioned that the National Intelligence Agency does
vetting of officials and that this is a partnership between two Departments.
·
The AR does not make
mention of the Awaiting Trial detainee (ATD)
children population and whether this is decreasing.
The DCS
stated that there is an Interdepartmental Committee dealing with ATD’s and ATD children.
The DCS provides weekly statistics to the Department of Social Development with
regard to children that was arrested and need to be moved to
Secure Care Facilities.
·
A number of critical
posts have very high vacancy rates and the number of personnel in some of these posts is actually decreasing rather than increasing. An increase in the vacancy rate from 7.3% in 2004/05 to
7.8% in 2005/06 was noted.
These include:
o
Financial and
related professionals.
o
Doctors.
o
Pharmacists
o
Nurses.
o
Psychologists.
o
Social workers.
The DCS
stated that it does have a Recruitment and Retention strategy in place, but mentioned
that the DCS is not only competing with other departments, but also with other
countries.
·
The Committee was
concerned that there is little progress with regard to the building of prisons
and mentioned that overcrowding is worsening the pressure on existing
facilities.
The DCS
indicated that time frames will be established on the basis of the
feasibility studies.
·
The Committee was concerned about the performance
bonuses paid out to the Accounting Officer and senior managers. The Committee wanted to
ascertain how much in rand value is paid to the Accounting Officer in terms of
Performance bonus and the Committee is of the opinion that if a Department does
not perform, no Performance bonuses should be paid out.
The DCS
stated that severe action will be taken against staff who are not performing after
interventions has been put in place and that it is busy addressing under
performance in the DCS. The DCS stated that it is
important to reward staff for excellent performance.
·
The Committee was
very concerned about the equity plan of the DCS and requested statistics with
regard to racial and gender breakdown of new recruits during 2005/6.
·
The Committee was
concerned that the DCS purchased vehicles to the amount of R 94 million during March 2006, just before the end of the financial year.
The DCS
stated that it decided to use its
savings in other areas and identified the need for smaller vehicles such as
combis to transport offenders. This was done throughout the whole financial
year and the vehicles were delivered during February and March 2006.
·
The risk assessment
and profiling tool was reported as developed in 2004/05 but not implemented as
per target in 2005/06.
·
HIV/AIDS training
for correctional officials did not meet the target of training of 1 160
officials (including health professionals).
Only 355 officials were trained.
C. Recommendations
Having
considered the 2005/6 Annual Report and Financial Statements of the DCS, the Portfolio
Committee makes the following recommendations:
Auditor General Report
The
Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services is extremely concerned that the
DCS has received a qualified audit opinion from the Auditor General for the 5th year in a row. In addition, the Committee notes that the
Department received the most qualifications in its audit in 2005/06 in
comparison to any other department. The
Committee recommends that:
1) The Department of Correctional
Services must submit a full written report (Action Plan) on issues raised in
the Auditor General Report 2005/06 to the Portfolio Committee, by
·
A
full explanation on progress made to address each of the areas of qualification
and matters of emphasis outlined in the Auditor General Report for 2005/06.
·
An
outline of future actions which will be taken to address these areas.
·
An
outline of clear time frames by which each of the actions taken to address each
qualification and matters of emphasis will be implemented.
The Portfolio Committee will call
the Department in to present on this Report during the first quarter of
2007/08.
2) The Portfolio Committee on
Correctional Services will establish a subcommittee of selective members of the
Committee to deal with the issues raised in the Auditor General Report. This subcommittee will be
supported in its functions by the Committee Secretary and the Parliamentary
Researcher.
3) The Department of Correctional
Services must report to this subcommittee on a monthly basis. This must be in the form of a written report
to the subcommittee, submitted on the 1st day of each month beginning
February 2007, outlining the following issues:
(1) Progress in addressing each of
the areas of qualification and of matters of emphasis outlined in the 2005/06
Auditor General Report.
(2) Identification of the current
stumbling blocks in addressing each of the areas.
(3) Steps taken by the DCS to
overcome these stumbling blocks.
(4) Amendments to the time frames
stipulated in original report submitted to the Portfolio Committee on this
issue.
4) The Portfolio Committee on
Correctional Services will invite the Auditor General to appear before the
Committee on a quarterly basis to report on problems related to any issues
outlined in the Auditor General Report, as well as new issues that may have
arisen in the course of the 2006/07 financial year and issues that may arise in
the 2007/08 financial year.
5) The Portfolio Committee on
Correctional Services will invite National Treasury to appear before the
Committee on a quarterly basis to report on expenditure trends within the DCS,
as well as problems related to any issues outlined in the Auditor General
Report.
6) In order to improve the
effectiveness of the Audit Steering Committee:
(1) The National Commissioner and
the Chief Deputy Commissioners must attend all Audit Steering Committee
meetings.
(2) Regional Commissioners should
be encouraged to attend all Audit Steering Committee meetings where possible.
Technical Changes to the Annual
Report
In
order to improve the ability of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional
Services to effectively fulfil its oversight function over the Department of
Correctional Services, the Committee recommends that:
1) Each target outlined in the DCS
Strategic Plan is covered in the Annual Report so that there is clear
information available to the Committee and the public on whether DCS is
achieving its identified targets. Future
Annual Reports should therefore include:
·
A
clear identification of each and every target, whether in table or descriptive
form.
·
An
outline of progress and constraints in meeting each target for the relevant
financial year.
·
Clear
identification as to whether each target was achieved or not achieved.
2) When the DCS appears before the
Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services to present on its Annual Report,
its presentation must include:
·
A
comprehensive briefing on departmental performance and the extent to which the
targets outlined in the Strategic Plan were met for the relevant year.
·
An
overview of the financial statements of the Department for the relevant year.
·
An
outline of key issues raised in the Auditor Generals report for the relevant
financial year.
Performance of the DCS
The
Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services notes with concern that a number
of performance targets as outlined in the Strategic Plan for 2005/06-2008/09
were not met. The following recommendations are made with regard to the DCS
performance in 2005/06:
1) The DCS must submit to the
Portfolio Committee by
2) The increase in the vacancy rate
overall in the DCS from 7.3% to 7.8% must be addressed as a matter of
urgency. The two main areas of concern
are the high vacancy rate by professionals in the Care Programme (including
doctors, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists and social workers) and vacancies
with regard to financial professionals and human resources related
personnel. In terms of all categories of
professionals, the DCS should:
·
Consider
employing professionals under the Public Service Act, rather than the Correctional
Services Act,
as well as provide clarity on
whether Professionals are generally employed under the Public Service Act or
Correctional Services Act. Treasury has stated that very few Professionals in DCS are
employed under the PSA in comparison with other departments such
SAPS or Defence.
·
Identify
in the form of a written report submitted to the Portfolio Committee by
3) The DCS must submit to the
Committee a report identifying new recruits for 2005/06 broken down in terms of
province, race and gender.
4) The security vetting of officials
working in the DCS, especially at high risk centres must be addressed as a
matter of urgency, in order to reduce the likelihood of DCS compliance in
escapes and other corrupt activity in prisons.
The DCS must submit a report to the Portfolio Committee by
5) The Committee recommends that the
DCS prioritise training for officials including health professionals in
managing HIV/AIDS and that it ensures the speedy rollout of implementation of
the comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme in all management areas. In addition, the DCS must prioritise
discussions with the Department of Health with regard to the accreditation of
correctional centres as ART centres. A written progress report on the
management of HIV/AIDS in prisons must be submitted to the Portfolio Committee
on Correctional Services twice of year. This report should include:
·
Outline
of the key components of the comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme.
·
Progress
on the implementation of the comprehensive programme in all management areas.
Clear time frames should be stipulated for implementation.
·
Stumbling
blocks in the implementation of the plan.
·
Steps
taken to address these problems.
6) The poor performance of the DCS
in meeting its targets in the Development programme for 2005/06 is noted. The DCS must submit a written report to the
Committee by 1 February 2007 outlining:
·
Barriers
faced by the Department in realising its targets in terms of the Development
programme for 2005/06.
·
Identification
of measures that have been taken to address these problems in 2006/07.
7) The DCS must submit the
feasibility study report on the second set of 4 new prisons to the Portfolio
Committee by
8) The DCS must report to the
Portfolio Committee on a quarterly basis, in a comprehensive written report, on
progress made with respect to each of the 8 new prisons. This report, which must be given
to the Committee on the 1st day of each parliamentary
quarter must include:
·
Progress
with respect to each prison.
·
Stumbling
blocks with respect to each prison, which may affect time frames.
·
Mechanisms
to overcome these stumbling blocks.
·
New
timeframes where applicable.
The Portfolio Committee may call
the DCS to present on these reports where necessary.
9) The DCS must submit by
D. Conclusion
The DCS
received a qualified audit report for the fifth year in a row. This is of enormous concern to the Committee,
particularly in light of the comments made by the Auditor-General in
Parliament, where he stated that poor financial management processes may also
point to poor performance information processes in a Department. The concern is
that if the DCS processes for management of its financial information are
faulty, then its processes for managing performance information may also be
faulty. This may mean that the
performance information provided in the Report is questionable.
The
Committee takes cognisance of the fact that the Department are facing serious
challenges and are in the process of addressing it. The Committee feels that only through strengthened
partnerships, the DCS
will be able to address challenges.
The Portfolio Committee will monitor the progress made
with regard to the recommendations.
Report
for consideration.