Police watchdog 'headless'

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa will be taken to task for the high vacancy rate at the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.

All the agency's provincial units are headed by acting officials.

Its directorate's leadership team - ironically led by acting executive director Koekie Mbeki - dropped this bombshell when it appeared before the police portfolio committee.

Most of these posts have been vacant since April last year while the position held by Mbeki in the interim has been vacant since September last year.

Briefing the portfolio committee, Mbeki said there was an 8.8% vacancy rate across the whole directorate.

Mbeki said management could not fill the most senior positions as "the executive authority [Mthethwa] is still applying his mind".

Chairman Annelize van Wyk said the committee would draft a letter asking Mthethwa to fill the posts.

But, she said, the directorate had to accept responsibility for the high number of staff vacancies across the board.

"Many of these posts the minister must fill but the other vacancies are the IPID's problem."

Van Wyk said parliament would also ask Treasury to intervene to fix the under-expenditure and poor financial management evident at the directorate.

"If you keep doing things in the same way, do you expect different results?

"And that is where the appointment of senior management becomes so important because too many of you have become too comfortable sitting in your offices, not worrying what the impact of you not doing your work is [doing] to the directorate," Van Wyk said.