Draft report of the Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security on the Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Independent Complaints Directorate for 2005/06

The Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security, having considered the Annual Report and Financial statements of the Independent Complaints Directorate, reports as follows:

A. Introduction

The Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security has scrutinised the Annual Report of the Independent Complaints Directorate 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 ICD:

· Briefing by National Treasury on the oversight role of parliamentary committees and an analysis of the expenditure trends, financial statements and performance of the ICD in 2005/06.

· Briefing by the Research Unit of the Parliament of South Africa on analysis of the Annual Report of the ICD for 2005/06.

· Hearings and deliberations with the ICD on the Annual Report of the ICD for 2005/06.

B. Findings and Key Issues of Concern:

The Portfolio Committee notes the following key issues:

Programme 1: Administration

Staff Complement The ICD staff complement increased from 203 to 231 during the year under review. However the present staff complement is only at 43% of the total approved staff structure of 535. The vacancy rate at the ICD is 13.7% with a gender ratio of 56% male and 44% females and a shortfall of 12%.

Challenges faced are as follows:

· Executive Director {ED} post has been vacant for almost a year

· Generates a lot of personnel savings

· Loosing critical personnel to SAPS due to SAPS's new salary dispensation.

· Failed to upgrade secretaries from level 4 to 5 as per DPSA directive .

· Can't retain competent staff due to lack of growth

· 15 posts became vacant between April and July 2006

· 4 internal promotions, 11 external promotions

In terms of the performance review for 2005/06 the lCD's successes are as follows:

· Completed the unique numbering of assets

· Black empowerment companies providing services to the ICD from 41 % to 45%

· 5% of service providers are Black women owned

· 7% of service providers are Black owned

· Vacancy rates from 9% to 3.9%

· Interns 21.6%

· 4 Provincial offices upgraded to Director level

· Approval of appointment - up to level 8 - decentralized

· Team building session conducted as directed by Portfolio Committee

· Induction courses conducted

Supply Chain Management System. A consultant was appointed to assist with the development of policies and procedures for the implementation of the Supply Chain Management (SCM). An advert was placed in July 2005 inviting suppliers to register on the lCD's database, and the database was updated accordingly. In order to implement SCM, all staff received some training. Compliance and implementation and rollout of SCM occurred by March 2006.

Asset Management Policy. The Asset Management policy was also approved and implemented. A unique number was allocated to all assets and were pasted on individual assets. Provincial offices were visited in February and March 2006 to verify the asset register. The department also installed NETST AR tracking system into all its official vehicles.

Staff Training and Awareness Campaigns. Several training and awareness campaigns were conducted to increase awareness and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among employees. Activities were conducted during youth development month, Women's month, and the 16 days of activism on no violence against women and children.

An Anti-Corruption Policy was developed.

Maintenance. The National Office acquired an additional building for Programme1: Administration. Staff members relocated in August 2005. Expenditure on renovation was shared with the owner of the new building, while renovations to the Executive Boardroom in the old building was completed during April and June 2005.' The Free State office relocated in March 2006 to a new building, as the lease on its previous premises had expired and the office accommodation was insufficient.

In response to concerns raised by Members about the big staff complement at the ICD head office and the high staff vacancy rate of 43% the ICD responded that the staff is needed to ensure that the ICD fulfil its mandate. Services like Human Recourses, Information Technology and Legal Services are centralised at head office. The ICD further stated that the high vacancy rate is due to a lack of sufficient funding.

In responds to concerns raised by Members about the number of Anti Corruption Command (ACC) investigators the ICD responded that this unit were establish due to the growing number of corruption cases reported. However these positions were centralised and in future more investigators will be appointed at a provincial level as more funding becomes available.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding the lCD's staff retention strategy in light of the big staff turn over rate, low staff moral and high stress and anxiety levels amongst staff, the ICD responded that the ICD management do it's best to retain staff. However insufficient funding prevents the ICD from offering staff higher salaries, since this is the main reason for staff leaving. Various strategies like performance evaluation, team building sessions, employer of the month awards are used to motivate staff. Excessive workloads were sited as the reason for high stress and anxiety levels amongst staff due to insufficient personnel.

Programme 2: Investigations of Complaints

The following complaints have been investigated:

· The number of complaints falling within the lCD's mandate decreased by 12% compared with the previous year (from 5 709 cases recorded in 2004/2005 to 5 119 cases in 2005/2006).

· With regard to deaths in police custody or as a result of police action, a decrease of 5% was recorded (from 652 cases received in 2004/2005 to 621 cases in 200512006).

· A total of 1 643 cases of serious criminal offences allegedly committed by SAPS members were reported. This represented a decrease of 5% when compared to the previous reporting period. The majority of these cases related to assault on suspects (42.9%). Allegations of corruption accounted for 8% of cases, while theft accounted for 6% of cases.

· Abuse of power appears to be another problem requiring management intervention. A total of 2 855 cases of police misconduct were reported to the ICD. Incidents of misconduct reported to the ICD decreased by 16 % when compared with the 3 407 complaints received in 2004/2005.

· With respect to deaths, a finalisation rate of 93% was achieved; with regard to cases of criminality, 62% of eligible cases were finalized; and, finally, 73% of misconduct cases were finalized. These rates include the cases received in the previous financial year but finalised in 200512006.

Challenges faced are as follows:

· The programme still experiences backlogs.

· Establishing the ACC within the National Office, as opposed to capacitating provincial offices, encountered some opposition. However, it is envisaged that this capacity will be eventually moved to the traditionally bigger provinces such as the Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape. Budgetary constraints are a factor in relocating the ACC to provincial offices. To date the ACC operates with a mere 3 investigators and has not grown since 2004 when it was first established.

· Retention of investigators has proved a problem (5 investigators left the ICD).

· Attracting experienced persons to senior investigator positions is also proving to be a problem as the salaries offered are not attractive to potential employees.

Legal Services: assisted the State Attorney in defending 4 cases against the lCD, instituted by SAPS members, involving civil claims for damages for their unlawful arrest and detention. These cases were still pending at the end of the reporting period. Legal services was instrumental in compiling a draft Standard Operating Procedure for the reporting and Handling of cases of Corruption, as well as the Transport policy for the ICD.

It has progressively become involved in rendering assistance to HRM in the handling of disciplinary matters. Legal Services drafted an amended and updated Protocol on co-operation between the ICD, SAPS and the MPS. Legal Services also took part in the deliberations of the task team for the amendment and eventual finalisation of the regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act 70 of 2002.

Skills Development: All 43 investigators were sent on in-house training, conducted in September 2005 and February and March 2006. These training sessions were conducted in conjunction with Justice College. The ICD also intends issuing firearms to its investigators. Two handgun-training sessions have been provided to investigators in June and July 2005. Eleven investigators attended the training in June 2005, while 8 attended in July 2005.
Integrity Strengthening Unit (lSU): The Unit was launched in October 2005. Since then the ISU has developed a values-based Code of Ethics for internal as well as external stakeholders. In addition, the ISU has implemented a formal ethics and anti-corruption training programme.

Investigations: ICD received 714 notifications of death in police custody. 48% of these cases were dismissed, as police involvement was not established. The majority of deaths were attributed to suicide, natural causes, injuries sustained while in custody, as well as injuries sustained prior to custody (the majority of these were attributed to vigilantism). Negligence or blatant disregard for Standing Orders and Regulations was for the most part a root cause in those cases where police involvement was established.

1 473 complaints of criminality, including corruption, were investigated.
ICD investigated 54.6% of the 3 716 complaints relating to misconduct / service delivery. The rest were monitored. The majority of these complaints stem from a combination of factors including lack of knowledge of processes, failure to show interest in the complaint reported, negligence in the performance of duty, discourtesy, or the deliberate refusal to perform services. The ICD noted that in some cases the problem lies in a lack of skills and that to prevent a reoccurrence of the offending behaviour, training and not punishment would be the preferable intervention. Unfortunately, the nature of the lCD's recommendations are punitive, which means that an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to improved service delivery and the reduction of complaints has been over1ooked. The ICD has identified this as a challenge that it intends overcoming in the next financial year.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding current backlogs and the lCD's plans to deal with these backlogs, the ICD responded that recent visits by head office to provincial offices has revealed that some finalised cases were kept open unnecessarily. However the second quarter1y report will show an improvement.

In response to concerns raised .by Members regarding vision 2005 and why it was cancelled, the ICD responded that this goal was too ambitious and that the ICD tried to investigate all cases brought before it. This strategy has been revised and the Secretariat for Safety and Security currently assist in handling some cases.

In response to concerns raised by Members on the occurrence of excessive overseas travelling by ICD senior staff, the ICD responded that these visits were funded by donors and were necessary for sharing international best practice.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding the forensic scientist in Fort Beaufort who presented an inaccurate report and what steps has been taken against him/her, the ICD responded that in most outlying areas there are no forensic pathologist (which is a specialised field) and thus post-mortems are conducted a General Practitioner. Whenever General Practitioners conduct post-mortems ICD investigators have to assist. In the case of Fort Beaufort a General Practitioners conducted the post-mortem without the assistance of an ICO investigator, thus resulting in the submission of an unsatisfactory postmortem report.

Programme 3: Information Management and Research
In terms of the performance review for 2005/06 the lCD's successes are as follows:

· Registration of new cases took on average 24 hours in accordance with targets. This is a 100% improvement on the previous financial year. However there is till a problem with the prompt referral of cases to other internal units such as Investigations and Monitoring. A factor that was identified as contributing to this problem was the failure of Case Intake Committees to function as they ought (for example, staff shortages/unavailability in the provincial offices make it difficult to convene meetings of such committees).

· Proactive Oversight Unit. The POU conducted 3 projects and hosted one workshop, producing a workshop report.

· Information Technology (IT) developed a comprehensive IT security Policy (endorsed by the NIA) to be implemented in the following financial year.

· The development of an Intranet commenced in November 2005. The system is expected to be fully operational by June 2006.

· The Case Management System was upgraded to improve performance at the operational level. The system was tested and implemented on 1 April 2005.

· Data lines between the offices were upgraded to cater for the increased volumes of work.

· IT staff dealt with helpdesk calls. The response time was on average 8 hours. Calls were resolved in less than 4 hours consistently but initial failure to implement the helpdesk solution provides the impression that standards were not achieved.

· A number of outreach activities per province were held to raise awareness regarding the ICO.

Challenges faced are as follows:

· Accurate information is important in ensuring informed decision-making and for ensuring accountability. The Strategic Plan 2005-2008 identifies the need for up-to-date database as crucial in ensuring both informed decision and in holding stakeholders responsible.

· Ensuring that recommendations from the stakeholder workshop regarding an improved relationship between the SAPS, Secretariat and the ICO are taken forward.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding the seemingly non-existence of the Domestic Violence Act (OVA) offenders register at some police stations visited by the Portfolio Committee, the ICD stated that monitoring compliance of the OVA at police stations is a huge challenge. Each Provincial office only has one person assigned to this task, for example it has been estimated that in Limpopo Province it will take the ICD Monitor three years to monitor all police stations effectively.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding police cell inspections by the ICD, the ICD stated that police cooperation with regards to cell inspections remains a problem and that station commissioners received directives from the National office, that ICD officials should only be allowed access to police cells during investigations. The ICD finds this problematic since visitation to police cells forms part of the lCD's mandate.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding deaths in police custody, the ICD stated that deaths in police custody occurs for various reasons, many of which were suicides but it has been found that that many suicides are due to police negligence.

Financial Statements
The ICD spent R49 236 million of its allocated budget of R 49 522 million, resulting in an under-spending of R286 000 which was returned to Treasury. Reasons sited for the under spending were mainly due to the large number of vacancies. Savings were used to fund the relocation of staff at National Office and the installation of IT linkages and the hosting of the workshop and launch of the ICD Code of Ethics. The ICD further reported overspending on Information Management of R 88 000 and Goods and Services of R 91 000.

The Auditor General was unable to express an opinion on the financial statements. However, attention was drawn to the following issues:

Incorrect disclosure of receivables. Management did not independently review and confirm the correctness and completeness of the debtors (National Treasury, SAPS, Statistics SA and Provincial Government - Western Cape). An amount of R 195 213 was paid in advance and not recovered from the Department of Public Works and was not disclosed as receivable. In addition, the owing departments could not confirm inter-departmental receivables.

Information systems audit. A follow-up information systems audit was performed on the user-account management procedures surrounding the BAS application. It was found that the duties were inadequately desegregated, allowing the systems administrator to perform the functions of an ordinary user. This together with the inadequate authorisation of new users may compromise the integrity of the data inputted to the system.

Non-compliance with laws and regulations:

Lack of approved supply chain management policy. For the year under review the lCD's Chain management policy was still a draft. It was, however, approved in March 2006 and implemented in April 2006.

Internal audit. Treasury Regulations were not complied with. The control environment was ineffective as a result of weaknesses in the internal audit division.

Insufficient control of leave benefits. Due to a lack of independent management review and monitoring, the controls over leave were insufficient.

Human resource management. Due to a lack of independent management review and monitoring, the human resource plan was in draft form and the contents of the draft plan were also not in accordance with the Public Service Regulations.

Special investigations. Allegations were made against the ICD in respect of travelling and subsistence, as well as recruitment. The allegations were referred to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for investigation on 19 November 2004. The PSC report had not been released at the time of the audit report. The Portfolio Committee for Safety and Security also requested that the Auditor General perform a separate investigation on human resources, travelling and subsistence expenditure. Control weaknesses that were identified were brought to the Department's attention.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding bursaries awarded to staff and their obligation to the lCD, the ICD stated that contracts with staff stipulates that staff who fail courses has to finance these courses themselves and if failure of courses persist, staff are required to make arrangements to repay the original bursary.

In response to concerns raised by Members regarding staff training, the ICD responded that all induction courses and training of investigators are done at Head Office. Specialised training are conducted in Provincial Offices as the need arise.


Recommendations
Committee recommends that:

· A workshop be held soon after the appointment of the new CEO in order for the Committee to assist the ICD realise it's restructuring goals.

· A skills audit be conducted to ensure the correct placement of staff and to further ensure that staff are paid market related salaries.

· Funding is made available for the establishment of Satellite Offices in all Provinces.

C. Conclusion
Since 2003/2004, the ICD has seen a growth in its allocated budget of 14.8%, which is well in excess of inflation. Most of that growth has been intended for compensation of employees. However, there has been a decline in the percentage of compensation for employees, with funds been shifted to other items and activities. Because of this the ICD continues to suffer from capacity constraints, which has affected its ability to meet its targets for 2005/2006 and has earned a disclaimer from the Auditor-General. The Committee commends the Department of Independent Complaints Directorate on successes attained during the 2005/06 financial year and recommends that concrete steps are taken to address areas which have been identified as challenges.


Ms MM Sotyu (MP) Committee Chairperson