Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald told the parliamentary committee that he would monitor the department’s use of consultants and look “into the amount of money we can save”. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The department of correctional services is working to significantly reduce its reliance on consultants, using them “only when necessary” to improve governance and cut irregular expenditure, it said on Tuesday.
According to a presentation delivered to parliament’s portfolio committee on correctional services, the department’s consultant-related spending dropped to R29.2 million in the 2025-26 financial year, down from R119.3 million the previous year.
Its historical over-reliance on consultants was driven by governance weaknesses, a shortage of critical skills and the complexity of managing large-scale projects, chief financial officer Lebogang Marumule told committee members.
In the past, the department faced recurring issues of non-compliance with procurement prescripts, limited internal capacity and repeated findings from the auditor-general regarding irregular contract splitting.
Marumule said that the clearing of irregular expenditure has been “a very, very tedious exercise with which the department of correctional services has been struggling, with transactions going as far [back] as 2008”.
The previous department of correctional services audit committee, he said, had mandated that the management of R6.7 billion in irregular expenditure should be a project undertaken by the department and consultants were sought in this regard.
The department had tried to deal with the irregular expenditure itself, “but we were not successful”, he added.
The department experienced a massive spike in expenditure in 2020-21 and 2021-22, when the treasury issued an instruction to it, as well as the departments of health and police, that they needed inventory management systems.
Correctional services used consultants for this, said Marumule, “who travelled the whole country”. Expenditure normalised when those contracts came to an end.
In 2023-24 and 2024-25 there was another spike, when consultants were used to resolve irregular expenditure investigations and securing contracts.
According to the department’s annual report for the year ending March 2024, consultants were brought in primarily to support accounting, auditing, engineering and compliance functions.
In that report, the department said it was working to reduce its dependence on consultants but acknowledged that internal constraints continued to limit its ability to meet operational requirements without external assistance.
Tuesday’s report indicated that consultants were engaged to assist in areas such as project management, oversight, translation services and occupational health and safety compliance.
Despite repeated findings by the auditor general highlighting concerns around irregular contract practices, the department maintained that the use of consultants remained vital in plugging internal capacity shortfalls.
The portfolio committee heard that a sharp increase in consultant spending was recorded in 2021-22, when the department spent R136 million — more than triple the previous year.
That figure dropped to R19.4 million in 2022-23 as several contracts ended. But the trend reversed again in 2023-24 and 2024-25, with spending climbing to R61.8 million and R119.3 million, respectively.
The department attributed this renewed spike to the advertisement of bids aimed at resolving irregular expenditure investigations and securing compliant contracts.
Despite the fluctuations, the 2025-26 forecast reflects a return to cost containment, as several contracts are set to expire by July and August 2025.
Highlighting the progress made in reducing its irregular expenditure from R6.7 billion to R788 million, Marumule said that consultants played a role in identifying and rectifying non-compliant financial practices, as well as supporting oversight structures such as the audit and risk committee.
The department has since adopted a formal reduction strategy focusing on resource optimisation, capacity development, strategic alignment and skills enhancement.
The strategy aims to ensure that external consultants are only used when necessary and that internal staff are equipped with the skills needed for long-term sustainability.
Reducing dependence on external consultants by building internal capacity and expertise was now a central goal.
But the department also acknowledged that challenges remained, including persistent non-compliance with prescripts, unavailability of contracts and risks of renewed irregular expenditure if internal capacity was not adequately strengthened.
Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald told the parliamentary committee that he would monitor the department’s use of consultants and look “into the amount of money we can save”.
The department is prioritising internal training and development, while tightening oversight over the procurement of services to ensure alignment with treasury regulations.