Ipid reacts to case probe

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is expecting, within the next few weeks, a report on the premature closure of cases to manipulate performance statistics.

This comes after an expose by Viewfinder, a new accountability journalism project, detailed how, since at least 2012, the police watchdog manipulated statistics.

Viewfinder’s investigation found that on the days before the end of the financial year, many more cases would be closed than on other days.

Internal documents reveal that Ipid investigators complained that they were forced to complete, or close, cases without concluding a proper investigation.

These included reports from Amar Maharaj, Ipid’s former ethics and risk manager, after visits to Ipid’s provincial offices in KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape and Gauteng in 2014, in which investigators explained how they were forced to close, or complete, cases before a proper investigation was completed.

There is also a memorandum on the fraudulent closure of 152 cases between April and July 2016 in Gauteng, in which it is alleged that the user names and passwords of deceased Ipid officials, or those who were no longer employed there, were used to close cases on Ipid’s system.

There is also a whistleblower’s report from KwaZulu-Natal, dated September 2016, about more than 900 cases that were closed without proper investigations.

In a statement responding to the Viewfinder article, Ipid acting spokesperson Sontaga Seisa dealt with the memorandum on the Gauteng cases.

“In 2016, the former Ipid employee, an ethics officer, allegedly received a whistleblower report in respect of the ‘special closure’ of investigations at the Gauteng provincial office. The whistleblower alleged that the following cases were being fraudulently closed as ‘special closures’ at the Gauteng provincial office: assault, corruption, discharge of a firearm, death as a result of police action, death in police custody, and rape,” the statement said.

“It was alleged that the cases were closed without due process being followed in respect of conducting the required investigations. He forwarded a report to the office of the then executive director, requesting that an investigation be launched into the fraudulent closure of cases.

“Upon investigating the cases closed [in] Gauteng province during the period April to September 2016, it was found that cases closed as ‘special closure’ were done as per instruction received from then acting provincial head.

“The then acting provincial head of Gauteng’s office, he refused to cooperate with investigators and did not provide his reasons for ordering these special closures.

“The then acting provincial head has since resigned from Ipid.” – News24 Wire