SAPS HAS LOTS OF IRREGULAR EXPENDITURE BUT THERE’S NO CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT

SAPS Chief Financial Officer Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane told the Parliamentary ad hoc committee sitting at the Kgoshi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria that although SAPS has lots of irregular expenditure, there is no real consequence management in the organisation.

The ad hoc committee has been established to investigate corruption and shenanigans that are inherent in the SAPS.

Dimpane started off by telling the committee that she doesn’t know one of the people believed to be responsible for the said corruption and shenanigans in the SAPS, namely Vusi “Cat” Matlala; that she has never met him but has only heard about him on TV.

She told the committee that people found guilty of committing serious offences in the SAPS usually get away with a mere written warning instead of being subjected to harsh measures for their wrongful acts.

“There seems to be lack of accountability, and consequence management is not real regarding irregular expenditure in SAPS; irregular expenditure is rampant; managers appoint people to conduct disciplinary investigations and in most cases the recommendations of such investigations are that the guilty parties must be given a written warning or ordered to undergo corrective counselling,” complained Dimpane.

“These measures, in my opinion, do not deter bad behaviour,” she said.

“You have people deliberately breaking procurement rules to commit fraud and this is the culture in SAPS,” she said.

Dimpane said this state of affairs is a concern to her as Chief Financial Officer, as well as to the risk management department and the internal auditors.

“We advised the National Commissioner that there must be an end to the practice of establishing investigative structures that always recommend written warnings against the culprits; that forensic audit investigations must be pursued so as to unearth the maladministration that is inherent in the SAPS and expose culprits who must be held accountable with the possibility of recovering misused or stolen funds,” she said.

She revealed that accountability sessions involving senior SAPS management have been established by National Commissioner Fannie Masemola as a way of declaring zero tolerance against malfeasance in the SAPS.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether infamous attempted murder-accused Vusi “Cat” Matlala will appear before the ad hoc committee on Wednesday at the Kgoshi Mampuru Correctional Centre.

This after his lawyers wrote a letter to ad hoc committee chairperson Soviet Lekganyane wherein they stated thst Matlala was not yet ready to give testimony; that he still needed more time for legal consultation.

On the other hand, Lekganyane has announced that Matlala will definitely appear before the ad hoc committee on Wednesday.