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The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes with extreme concern the high costs of the 2011 National Police Day that have been revealed by the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, in reply to a written question I posed to the Minister on 1 April this year. Minister Mthethwa has thus far stubbornly refused to reveal details concerning both the costs of this year’s National Police Day and the Police Day of 2010. However, now that these details have been revealed, the DA believes that further investigation into the financial management of this event is warranted. The fact that these answers were never made available to the DA office is currently a matter under investigation. The fact that this answer should have been made available just weeks before the election, possibly explains the matter.
I shall today be writing to the Auditor General to request that a forensic audit be conducted into the hosting of both this year’s National Police Day and the Police Day of 2010.
A copy of my question and the reply can be found here.
According to the Minister’s reply, a total of R36 348 757 was spent on 2011 National Police Day. Of this, R6 013 585 was spent on transport, R501 491 on accommodation, R44 574 on venue hire and R5 645 798 on expenses such as corporate gear, advertising and cleaning services etc. The question has to be asked how it is that vast sums of money were spent on paraphernalia such as plastic water bottles (R498 201.60), golf caps (R471 960.00) and T-shirts (R499 980.00). Of additional concern is that it is not clear from the Minister’s response why tender procedures were not followed in the procurement of the goods and services used during National Police Day.
It is also worth noting that almost R12-million was spent on entertainment, and over R12-million was spent on food and beverages, for this day long event- a questionable use of South African Police Service (SAPS) resources given that the ability of many police stations to carry out policing duties are inhibited by a chronic lack of basic resources.
The DA believes that it is important to recognise the good work of our police officers, but this can and should be done in a much more cost-effective way through local celebrations. Such events can and do boost officers’ morale, without incurring the wasteful expenditure of national events such as this year’s National Police Day. We have urgent needs not being met, and indeed bills not being paid, by our SAPS – and this event seems to be nothing more than an ego-boosting exercise for the National Police Commissioner. The Minister’s attempt to distance himself from the expenditure is duly noted.