The Portfolio Committee on Police has strongly recommended to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority Council (PSiRA) to suspend the Director and Chief Financial Officer for the irregularities and possible fraud relating to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) training programme. The committee considers it unacceptable that the PSiRA council has dithered on ensuring accountability for the number of programme irregularities, which is an affront to the efforts to fight fraud and corruption within public entities.
The committee’s recommendation was anchored on the view that the Director and the CFO, as the delegated officials for the management of day-to-day operations of PSiRA as per the founding Act, cannot objectively oversee the investigation of the programme they led. Furthermore, the committee is of the view that suspensions are necessary to ensure openness and accountability, as well as to safeguard the credibility of the investigation.
Meanwhile, the committee was critical of the council’s inability, as the accounting authority, to exercise its fiduciary responsibilities relating to the training programme. The committee considers it unacceptable that PSiRA and the UIF authorised the payment of over R30 million as an advance payment to the service provider before services were rendered. This was in contravention of Treasury Regulation 31.1.2(c) and section 57(b) of the Public Finance Management Act and shows disregard for sound financial management of taxpayers’ resources.
The fact that this programme and connected irregularities have been ongoing since April 2019, yet no official has been held to account, is also worrying. “The fact that the only officials who have now been suspended are those who attempted to leak the forensic report points to a lack of willingness to ensure accountability on the matter,” said Mr Ian Cameron, the Chairperson of the committee.
The mismanagement of the programme is also concerning in the context that it robs the country’s youth of training programmes that can be a stepping stone towards improving their socio-economic status and their prospects of being gainfully employed. The information that only 118 of the trained 6 507 learners were accredited also points to the inadequacies in the supply chain process that appointed a service provider incapable of rendering services. It is unacceptable that the authority has admitted that no due diligence was performed for the awarding of the contract. This is standard protocol and the authority failed to safeguard the state’s financial resources.
The committee is also concerned that, besides the irregularities, the authority has had to spend additional resources to contract a law firm for the recovery of the advance payment as well as contract a firm to undertake a forensic audit of the programme. The committee has always advocated for responsible spending of limited resources. It is unconscionable that PSiRA had to spend additional resources that could have been better used to advance the object of the authority to undertake an investigation and recovery of monies, something that could have been prevented.
Meanwhile, the committee unanimously agreed that there is no basis in law or National Assembly rules requiring the committee Chairperson to recuse himself from a meeting dealing with material irregularities within the PSiRA and the UIF training programme.
The committee’s decision follows a letter sent to the Chairperson requesting that he recuse himself from the meeting. Members of the committee were steadfast that the request was irrational and had no standing in law and was not supported by the rules of the NA. Additionally, the members emphasised that the committee had a constitutional responsibility for oversight, and this was not limited to committee meetings and National Assembly sittings, as confirmed by the recent Western Cape judgement in Malema v the Speaker of the National Assembly and Others.
The committee has resolved that it will write a letter to the Minister of Police to highlight the shortcomings of the PSiRA Council and the recommendations made by the committee with regard to the suspension of the Director and CFO.psirt
