Police in shambles over the misuse of IT funds

PARLIAMENTARIANS are demanding answers from police on why they used money intended for IT improvements to do other things.

Members of the portfolio committee on police were yesterday left unhappy after it emerged that for years the police had diverted R6 billion allocated for Information Technology upgrades and detectives to buy cars.

Chairperson of the committee Francois Beukman said it did not make sense that R6bn had been allocated by the National Treasury over the years and there were no results to show for it.

Beukman also complained to the senior officials of the police that they had not submitted quarterly reports to the National Treasury on expenditure for its Integrated Justice System.

Dianne Kohler Barnard asked National Treasury why they had not stopped funds to the police because of lack of accountability.

She said the police had failed to account for how they used the billions allocated for the Integrated Justice System.

“The SAPS has failed to account. They failed to meet the terms you agreed upon,” said Kohler Barnard.

Angie Molebatsi of the ANC questioned why the police had failed to submit their quarterly reports to the National Treasury as required.

She said this needed to be done by the police, and there was no justification for not submitting these reports.

Another ANC MP, Jerome Maake, said funds had to follow projects, and if there were no projects, there should be no monies directed to a department.

“This is an important programme and it will make a difference in the justice system, but it is messed up,” Maake said.

Beukman said even Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu was concerned that the budget for the Integrated Justice System had been used on consumables, including buying cars.

Nompumelelo Radebe, of the National Treasury, warned that they would block funding for the Integrated Justice System if police failed to use the funds for the project.

She said if the police wanted to buy cars or use funds for consumables, they should go to their operational budget for this purpose.

Lieutenant-General Sindile Mfazi, the deputy national commissioner of management advisory services, said on Monday they had met with the budget office to discuss their performance agreement, and that the police were dealing with the issue of consequence management.