Police Commissioner Bheki Cele and his property management team who today presented a property management report to Parliament, were dismissed by the portfolio committee on Police because they could not answer questions regarding expenditure.

Following grilling questions on building spending by the SAPS, Bheki Cele asked that the SAPS be excused from the meeting as they were unable to answer questions from the members of Parliament regarding the huge sums of building and maintenance money that could not be properly explained. The Police Portfolio Committee will now be putting together a sub-committee to study the report in more detail and will recall Cele as well as the Auditor General to appear before Parliament to give detailed explanations.

Amongst the points of concern in the report:

• Deputy National Commissioner Hlela said that there were possible areas of ministerial intervention. Of particular concern is the Service Level Agreement entered into by SAPS and the Minister of Local Government to, amongst others, "[exempt] SAPS from submission of building plans". 
• In 06/07 the capital works expenditure (expenditure on construction of new assets or rehabilitation or upgrades) was R498 million. During that year, 7 new police stations were completed and 3 stations were re-established.
• In 07/08, the capital works expenditure increased by 46% to R727 million and only 1 new station was built, and 3 stations re-established - a total of 6 less stations than the previous year even with a R229 million expenditure increase
• In 08/09 capital works expenditure increased by a further 29% to R939 million. In this year, only 1 police station was completed and 4 were re-established.
• In 09/10, again the capital works expenditure increased by 12% to R1.1 billion, whilst only 2 stations' construction was completed and 2 were re-established.

This information gives rise to many questions regarding high expenditure and the low rate of construction. There are also questions around the almost R700 million maintenance budget, as some stations that we visited did not even have running water and many others which face severe maintenance needs. The Commissioner and his team were unable to answer our questions at all. It appears that SAPS property management is in a state of chaos.

Commissioner Cele and his property management team must now account for this expenditure. It is imperative that maintenance and new station funds are used wisely and that they reach where they are really needed. The police needs to be properly resourced if it is to properly do its job. 

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of police, May 19 2010

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