/ 1 October 2012

Police to investigate poor 10111 report

General Riah Phiyega has tasked police management to investigate the auditor general's report.
General Riah Phiyega has tasked police management to investigate the auditor general's report.

"The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS) General Riah Phiyega has taken cognisance of the outcomes of the report by the auditor general about the 10111 emergency call centres," said Brigadier Phuti Setati on Monday.

"The police management has been tasked to interrogate the findings and prepare a comprehensive response to the issues raised," he said.

The Star said that nearly 60% of the crimes reported to the police's 10111 call centre were not registered and were not investigated.

Setati said the media reports were also noted.

According to auditor general Terence Nombembe the SAPS's performance claims could not be verified because of a lack of administrative control. So-called "positive incident reports" to 10111 call centres had to be entered on the SAPS case administration system (CAS) to generate a docket with a case number, but 58 of positive incident reports were not linked to dockets on the CAS.

Nombembe's findings are contained in the SAPS annual report for 2011/12 tabled in Parliament on Friday.

National Assembly police oversight committee acting chairperson ANC MP Annelize van Wyk said 58% was "a huge number" that could not easily be explained away.

DA police spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard, said: "While citizens believe that their cases are being investigated by a SAPS that costs them R62.4-billion per annum, the criminals will no doubt be delighted to hear that the majority of their activities are never even looked at by our ailing SAPS."

Nombembe gave SAPS an unqualified audit. The department spent 98.9% of its budget in 2011/12, leaving R617-million unspent. This included R92-million for detective services. – Sapa