‘Ipid stats cooked in my absence’

McBride hangs out dirty linen at the inquiry

Former Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Robert McBride has alleged that internal statistics at the institution were manipulated during his suspension between 2015 and 2016. This was done seemingly to show that Ipid was functioning more successfully in his absence.

Testifying at the state capture inquiry yesterday, McBride said that upon his return to Ipid in October 2016 after a suspension of about 18 months, he found that a number of cases had been closed – to give the illusion that the institution’s performance had improved. One of the cases he recalled was against former police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane.

“At some stage, a duplicate of the same case made under a different case number in the Ipid case control system was made and subsequently both cases were closed because they were duplicates of each other,” said McBride.

“It was reported that Ipid’s performance had gone up since the suspension of the executive director [McBride] and the appointment of an acting executive director [Israel Kgamanyane]. It was not accurate and it was untrue. The manipulation of statistics and the closing of cases under the provision of special closure was utilised to come to that conclusion.” Phahlane’s case was not isolated.

The practice was quite widespread across provinces and an instruction had been given at some stage... it also occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

“It wasn’t an isolated case; it was a number of cases on special closure. We were then forced the following financial year to change the definition of what a completed case is.”