Police under scrutiny by parliament SCOPA committee

By Ofentse Mokae
01 July 2009

The performance of the South African Police Service has come under scrutiny by the parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts in parliament today.

This follows after the Auditor-general submitted a performance audit report of service delivery in police stations and their emergency centres.

The police were appearing before the committee and responding to irregular findings by the auditor general.

According to the findings amongst others, the shortage of bullet prove vest in certain police stations and the irregular use of police vehicles were top of the agenda.

The committee chairperson Themba Godi the use of police vehicles and other assets should be used in accordance to the rules and regulations.

“Every police vehicle should be properly used and accounted for” he said. Godi further said that effective and efficient monitoring in the police system to verify compliance is urgent.

Committee members also raised a number of issues found in the report to the police members.

One member said telephone infrastructure was very poor especially in rural areas. He said at times the police telephone lines were very bad or even out of order.

The police commissioners present at the meeting committed into looking deeply into the raised matters and reports will be made available in coming two weeks.