The Home Affairs Department is considering a forensic audit to find out how many fraudulent identity documents are in circulation, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Monday.
In a written reply to a question by Sandy Kalyan of the Democratic Alliance in the National Assembly, she said her department will consider such an audit in the 2007/08 financial year.
”Should such an audit be deemed as indeed necessary and feasible, it will be done in collaboration with other law-enforcement agencies, notably those within the justice, crime, peace and security cluster and the forum of South African directors general,” she said.
The terms of reference of this audit, which would include the timeframes and scope of the audit, would jointly be determined with these partners.
However, the final decision on the feasibility of an audit would take into account the impending introduction of the smart card ID, which would possibly identify fraudsters and drastically reduce fraudulent IDs through a structured multi-level identification service, Mapisa-Nqakula said. — Sapa