Justice department’s poor record-keeping delays protection orders for GBV victims – AG

The Audito-General of South Africa (AGSA) has criticised the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s performance in its reports.

The Audito-General (AG) briefed Parliament on Wednesday about the 2023/24 audit outcomes for the justice department, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

According to AGSA Assistant Manager Aphendule Mantiyane, the justice department, including the NPA, was unable to submit credible performance reports before the audit process.

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“We raised and identified material findings, which some, the department managed to adjust, however, there were some that were not correctly adjusted and thus, included material findings in the audit report,” she said.

Findings on justice department

These findings involved inadequate record-keeping, where reconciliation and verification of information were not effectively conducted, leading to inconsistencies between reported information and supporting records.

“There were indicators that were not well-defined, especially those which had court dependencies with other role players within the criminal justice system, wherein those arrangements were not agreed upon with the role players to ensure the department is able to collect and report the performance in terms of those particular indicators,” said Mantiyane.

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“These are key service delivery indicators that relate to issuing of protection orders within a particular timeframe as the department would have planned. When such instances occur, that means issues of GBV and femicide are exacerbated because the institutions that have the responsibility to ensure they are delivered timeously, there is no record to say, this objective has been met and if not, what corrections need to be taken to ensure they are delivered timeously.”

While the justice department has accountability systems in place, they do not seem to be effective as these are repeat issues the department could have prevented, she said.

“Officials who must ensure this is done are not taking the accountability as seriously as they should,” said Mantiyane.

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The justice department’s performance information is also largely maintained through manual processes.

“And considering the volume of the transactions that are processed on a daily basis within the justice department, it makes it a difficult task to do.”

AG on SIU

The SIU, however, improved in the 2023/24 financial year, receiving an unqualified audit opinion with findings.

This follows a qualified audit opinion in the 2022/23 financial year due to its inability to correctly account for revenue from various departments within the appropriate accounting period.

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“This was mostly due to the relationship and the work they do with the office of the State Attorney, where sometimes legal council bank invoices and do not submit them timeously,” said Mantiyane.

“By the time they submit the claims, they fall outside whatever accounting period the SIU will be working on as their accounting period is informed by Standards of Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP), which requires that they account for the transactions and expenditure on an accrual basis.”

The SIU managed to improve and submit a report that was free of material misstatements, said Mantiyane.

“The report was credible and did not require auditors for it to achieve credible performance reporting.”

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However, it must still improve on maintaining appropriate records to ensure that the reporting is accurate, complete and also supported by relevant evidence. It also needs to ensure that the revenue is accounted for in the correct accounting period.

“It must improve on keeping records so that it is not reliant on audit reports to achieve credible reporting.”