Police spend R81m on trips
May 17 2012 at 10:32am
By Gaye Davis
By Gaye Davis
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
Police
Minister Nathi Mthethwa. Photo: Courtney Africa
Police
officials splurged more than R80 million during the past financial year on
trips overseas, but the Department of Police is refusing to give further
details.
Information
provided by the department, and revealed by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on
Wednesday, said a total of 919 SAPS officials undertook 218 overseas trips
during the 2011/12 financial year.
The total bill
was R81 441 798 – which averages out to more than R88 000 for each official.
Daily
allowances, which ran to a total of more than R24m, average out to more than
R26 000 each.
The cost
breakdown was as follows:
* Accommodation
R22 959 409.
* Daily
allowance R24 371 968.
* Transport R30
670 433.
* Food and
beverages R206 558.
* “Incidental
costs” R3 233 430.
Total: R81 441
798.
ANC MP Annelize
van Wyk, a member of Parliament’s police oversight committee, wanted to know
the names of each official who travelled, as well as the purpose and the
outcome of every trip.
But in his
written reply to her questions, Mthethwa does not provide the information.
It appears that
the department, which his spokesman said had supplied the information, was coy
about giving details.
The reply
suggests that doing so might hamper ongoing criminal investigations.
Instead,
Mthethwa’s reply makes vague reference to the trips as having included
“attending Interpol-related matters”, regional meetings of police chiefs and
subcommittees within the Southern African Development Community (SADC),
conferences and training for peacekeeping and transnational crime, as well as
“investigative matters”. Study tours, SADC election observer missions, UN
peacekeeping meetings and EU security consultations were also listed.
Other trips
were “of an operational nature where follow-ups are carried out within the
context of organised crime and other criminal matters”.
“Given the fact
that trips are inclusive of matters relating to investigations, and some of the
investigations are still continuing, giving names of members and the outcome of
each trip might have a negative impact towards resolving crimes that are being
investigated.”
Mthethwa’s
reply said that the outcome, or impact, of all the foreign travel “cannot be
realised immediately”.
Mthethwa’s
spokesman, Zweli Mnisi, said that this was an issue the minister might take a
much closer look at in the near future.
From Page 1
“While we
understand that our police officials will from time to time travel overseas,
mainly to learn, interact and share expertise with their counterparts from
other police departments worldwide, we equally believe that consideration of
cost implications must be taken into account.
“We must, as a
department, ensure that our expenditures are not exorbitant and that we are in
line with government’s cost-saving principles of hair-cutting as announced by
the finance minister.”
Van Wyk said
she would be asking further questions about the spending and those who
benefited from it.
Sapa reports
that MPs held heated final deliberations on draft legislation to restructure
the Hawks in line with a Constitutional Court judgment.
Opposition
parties warned that the proposals would fail to satisfy the court. MPs were
expected to vote on the bill last night. The original version tabled has been
changed to give the members of the elite corruption-fighting unit greater
security of tenure, and to limit the influence of the national police
commissioner over it.
In the version
set to go to the National Assembly the head will be appointed for between seven
and 10 years. Although the head can still be removed by a vote in the National
Assembly, Parliament’s portfolio committee on police has agreed this can be
done only after an investigation headed by a sitting or retired judge.
These changes
came about after experts told public hearings that the initial draft failed to
satisfy the requirements of the Constitutional Court. - Political Bureau
