The Democratic Alliance is to ask the Auditor-General to investigate what it calls a second ”lapse of judgement” by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
The DA claims the agency has wasted taxpayers’ money. Last year President Thabo Mbeki unveiled a Wall of Remembrance at the NIA’s complex. This was recently demolished and would reportedly now be re-erected at another site in the complex.
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said he had also requested the party’s representative on Parliament’s intelligence committee Philip Schalkwyk, to raise the issue with the committee chairperson at the earliest opportunity.
”South Africa is one of the few countries in the world which has its own dedicated Minister of Intelligence. One would have thought that, in our case, intelligence would be well-planned and managed and that sound judgement will prevail at
all times. This does not appear to be the case,” he said.
Gibson said in March the DA had requested clarification about the NIA’s Milnerton ”mansion”, but had not received a satisfactory explanation as to why the purchase was necessary.
The party had asked the Auditor-General to probe the purchase, he said.
The Ministry of Intelligence rejected the allegations, saying the Wall of Remembrance had been a temporary structure, unveiled during a symbolic ceremony.
Ministry representative Lorna Daniels said the Auditor-General and joint standing committee on intelligence were mandated to examine, at their discretion, the financial conduct of the civilian intelligence community.
”In accordance with the laws, we will cooperate fully and openly with these bodies,” she said. – Sapa