Parliament
DA call for Scopa probe of justice department
The Democratic Alliance will ask Parliament’s public accounts committee (Scopa) to probe claims of ”massive underspending” in the justice department, DA spokesperson Sheila Camerer said on Tuesday.
”It is a pity that the chair of Parliament’s justice portfolio committee, Ms Fatima Chohan MP, has today decided not to grant the DA’s request to recall the justice department’s director-general, Advocate Menzi Simelane and his top finance officials for them to be probed for allegations of massive underspending in the department,” she said.
”If she does not intend to have the justice portfolio committee properly exercise its oversight role, then the DA will ask Scopa to investigate the claims as reported in this past weekend’s Sunday Times.
”I am also submitting a number of questions on the alleged underspending and last-minute adjustments to the justice minister,” Camerer said.
However, Simelane on Monday denied the allegations that the department had doctored its books to hide R840 million in under-spending.
The allegations made by the Sunday Times that the department had doctored its books and attempted to mislead the portfolio committee contained ”factual inaccuracies”, he said.
The Sunday Times reported that it had found that the officials, including Simelane, conspired to conceal the underspending by making a series of irregular changes to the department’s books on February 6, just 24 hours before presenting them to a Parliamentary committee.
The officials apparently risked losing out on performance bonuses because of the spending failure.
Simelane told the paper that excess funds were re-prioritised and channelled to various projects that the department had been unable to fund due to lack of money. He denied that his suggestion to his deputies to direct funds to new projects was reckless.
He said the money had been transferred into projects to provide the courts with digital equipment and for security services. — Sapa