Anti-corruption and governance expert Dr Albertus Schoeman says no full lifestyle audits have been conducted on the South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership in the past five years.
He has told evidence leader Advocate Matthew Chaskalson that the SAPS has only conducted lifestyle reviews and limited investigations.
Chaskalson: “Do you know how many lifestyle audits have been done in the last five years?”
Schoeman: “My understanding is that no lifestyle audits have been conducted within SAPS as of yet. There is a later parliamentary question that I believe came out, I think it was last week, where the acting minister of police indicated that they were still in discussions with the SIU to second officials to SAPS to do these lifestyle audits for them.”
Schoeman is focusing on the financial disclosure regimes applicable to senior officials within South Africa’s criminal justice system.
His testimony follows Witness M’s evidence which was heard in a closed session on Wednesday.
Dr Schoeman started by explaining the financial protocols that are in place in the SAPS to prevent corruption.
“So within framework in terms of the service regulation as well as SAPS. Its own employment regulation there are series of measures and mechanism in place intended to deal with conflict of interests to manage integrity within the public sector as well as SAPS that includes mechanisms around financial disclosures.”
“So preparing forms, stating your financial interest and asserts. It included protocols around conflict of interests management for a process in place if a conflict arises to determine how to deal with that and protocols around gifts. The limitations, the value of a gift and how it can be received and reported with the intention of preventing misconduct and corruption,” adds Schoeman.
Schoeman says specialist lifestyle auditors are often outsourced at a cost of between R30.000 and R50.000 per person.
He says most government departments including the South African Police Service do not have the expertise required to conduct these audits.
Schoeman also admits to evidence leader that the auditors have no statutory powers to obtain bank records directly and are therefore forced to rely on information voluntarily provided by the officials they are auditing.
“Just [to] clarify, because it is a point that you’ve made, but it seems to me to be a particularly important point, which is that whether they’re conducted by private auditors or by SIU auditors seconded to SAPS, the persons conducting lifestyle audits have no statutory powers to collect information from financial institutions. So they depend entirely on information that is voluntarily provided by the person they are auditing.”
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