spies
Marion Edmunds
THE government’s finance watchdog has provided a glimpse of the apparently pampered life of the nation’s spies.
National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the South African Secret Services (SASS) agents enjoy plush, furnished accommodation. Employees have also allegedly been leasing their own properties to their agencies, and there are plans for a special clinic for spies. The two agencies together spent more than R26-million on health care for their members in the 1995/96 financial year – 4% of their R671,2-million expenditure for the year.The NIA also spent R5-million on an undisclosed “asset” in 1995, which has been underused since.
The findings form part of the auditor general’s annual report on government finances, tabled last week in Parliament. Auditor General Henri Kluever again disclosed poor financial controls across government, leading to unauthorised expenditure of more than R150-million and raising serious doubts about how closely government officials follow rules such as going to the State Tender Board before spending public money.
The Intelligence Ministry refused to respond to questions arising from the report, saying all would be revealed in the budget speech of Deputy Minister of Intelligence Services Joe Nhlanhla later this year.
Kluever mentions, however, that R96-million has been spent so far on the NIA’s new office complex, and that a further audit was due of the 1996/97 financial year to check whether the R5-million asset had started to pay its way.
“At the time of compiling the report, the matter was being attended to,” Kluever noted.
The secrecy of the intelligence expenditure has always been a sore point for taxpayers, who fear that their money might be wasted under the cloaks of covert operations.
But Kluever has not shied away from pointing out problems which have cropped up in the department’s books. The amalgamation of the services of former homelands with the national services has been especially expensive.
“The cost of furnished accommodation which was hired to accommodate members transferred appeared excessive,” the report notes.
“Considerable amounts in respect of rentals were apparently overpaid. It was furthermore determined that members of the NIA and the SASS were in certain instances the undisclosed owners of properties rented to the agency … These findings are indicative of a total lack of internal control which could have resulted in irregular payments.”