Minister undertakes to increase executive oversight of Correctional Services

Minister undertakes to increase executive oversight of Correctional Services Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has undertaken to increase executive oversight to enhance scrutiny by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) of the country’s correctional services.

Mr Masuthu gave the undertaking on Wednesday while introducing the newly appointed National Commissioner of Correctional Services‚ Mr Zach Modise‚ to SCOPA in Cape Town.

He said Mr Modise’s appointment by Cabinet last week was part of stabilising the administrative leadership of Correctional Services‚ alongside the appointment of 16 senior managers since July 2014.

These strategic management appointments included the Chief Financial Officer‚ the Chief Audit Executive and the Deputy Commissioner for Internal Control and Compliance.

Mr Masutha said that‚ as the executing authorities of Correctional Services‚ they will ensure that the management of the department moves with speed in addressing a series of institutional challenges raised by SCOPA‚ that have resulted‚ among other issues‚ in audit qualifications.

He said he was also seriously concerned about deficiencies identified by members of SCOPA. He welcomed the scrutiny by SCOPA and undertook to pursue the management of Correctional Services to close a number of gaps flagged by SCOPA.

In addition to the general staff shortfall in Correctional Services‚ the department “falls short of filling vacancies left by staff attrition in a given year. Only 1482 positions were filled against 3005 positions left by staff in the 2014/15 financial year‚ a shortfall of over 50%‚” Mr Masutha stated.

He added that management had been instructed to “institute drastic measures” to fill vacancies‚ triple numbers of learnership staff recruitments‚ and implement “effective consequence management against those violating policies and regulation of government”.

SCOPA subjected the management of Correctional Services to tough scrutiny on the contents and contradictions contained in its 2013/14 annual report and flagged‚ among others‚ the following issues:

• Gaps in managing contracts of IT and infrastructure development projects;
• Delays in filling critical vacancies and building the requisite institutional capacity to improve services delivery;
• Weaknesses of internal controls including the under resourced Internal Audit Committee; and
• Starting and conclusion of investigations on all cases of violations of policy‚ regulations and procedures to ensure that there are consequences for among others‚ unauthorised remunerative work outside of DCS.

The newly appointed National Commissioner‚ Mr Modise‚ also welcomed the scrutiny of SCOPA‚ which outlined a number of weaknesses for effective management intervention.

He admitted that a lot of work must be done to take Correctional Services to a new operating pedestal.

He said a special investigating task team with regional representatives will be set up to address the backlogs in investigation of policy and regulation violations.

In his concluding remarks‚ the minister said the Executive Authority would work very closely with SCOPA to strengthen the executive and legislative oversight over the functioning of Correctional Services in order to improve governance and service delivery.

The Department of Correctional Services was instructed to reappear before SCOPA next week with comprehensive and honest responses to a series of questions raised by SCOPA on the 2013/14 annual report and on what has since been done to address problems.

RDM News Wire