Report
6 November 2006
Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour says the fundamentals in
government's commitment to fight fraud and corruption in South Africa's
correctional system and in society remain as firm as ever.
Commenting on the decision of government to publish the whole report of the
Jali Commission of Inquiry into fraud and corruption, Minister Balfour said the
Commission was instituted in 2001 to help root out the scourge, following the
investigations conducted by the Department of Public Services and
Administration as well as the Public Service Commission in 1999 and 2000,
respectively. These investigations gave an indication of the extent of fraud
and corruption in the institution resulting in the President instituting the
Jali Commission to investigate these incidents in nine-management areas, and
later on extended its mandate to cover the Grootvlei Correctional Centre.
Minister Balfour has re-assured the people of South Africa that the
government will leave no stone unturned to rid the country's correctional
system of fraud and corruption. He welcomed the level of public interest in the
report, saying issues of corrections have shot into the mainstream of the
national discourse on public safety, democracy and development.
"There is noting to hide. We need every official and every member of the
public to know what we have been progressively dealing with and succeeding in
the Department. We need all of them to throw their full weight behind our
efforts to build an ethical and secure correctional system we could all be
proud of, for its contribution in promoting safety and security for all,"
Minister Balfour said.
The department first released unedited the first 61 pages of the Executive
Summary, followed by the publication of the whole Executive Summary of the
report without names of officials fingered for fraud and corruption as these
109 officials were being served with notices of the intended disciplinary
hearings. Most have responded presenting their side of the story, while others
have requested extensions of the deadline given.
The Minister then submitted a request to the President for the publication
of the full 3 500 pages of the Jali Commission's final report, which was
granted. Now the report can be accessed from the government and correctional
services websites by anyone. Minister Balfour said government realised in
1999-2000 that it could ill afford a linear approach to rooting out fraud and
corruption in the department through reliance on the Jali Commission alone.
Various other interventions included:
* The appointment of a seasoned and a decisive management and leadership to
reclaim the management space and prerogative in determining the strategic
direction of correctional services. The turnaround on this front led to fierce
labour conflicts which are now part of the department's history. In this regard
the Jali Commission's report reflects this history instead of the status quo
that prevailed nearly two years ago. The management-labour relationship is now
informed by a constructive model called � Relationship Building by Objectives
(RBO).
* A partnership between Correctional Services and the Special Investigation
Unit (SIU) with a wider scope than the Jali Commission was established to
investigate instances of fraud and corruption in 179 centres nationally. Over
400 officials were disciplined, prosecuted and dismissed while also some
medical practitioners faced prosecutions and forfeiture of their
belongings.
* In line with a Cabinet decision and the resolutions of the National
Anti-Corruption summit, the department was assisted by the SIU in building
internal anti-corruption capacity in the form of two directorates for leading
investigations and sanctioning of fraudsters and corrupt officials. Reporting
of fraud to the anti-corruption hotline has increased by one-third, while the
conviction rate on these cases is 98%.
* The culture of fraud and corruption has earnestly begun to give way to a
more ethical behaviour of officials as correctional services intensifies its
onslaught against the scourge from prevention through ethics training to
investigation and sanctions with concrete evidence demonstrated long before the
Jali Commission concluded its report.
There is clear evidence that the character of the Department the Jali
Commission of Inquiry was set up to investigate in 2001 was significantly
different by the conclusion of its work in December 2005. Although the levels
of incidents remain unacceptable it must be acknowledged that escapes had
reached a record 94 year low of 120; incidents violence inside centres was
reduced by 65% to just over 1 500; 66 high risk centres were fitted with state
of the art security system; an offender disciplinary code was approved in 2003
with over 300 officials trained as presiding and prosecuting officers to
eliminate arbitrary disciplinary actions against offenders; and recruitment had
been partly outsourced for nearly two years. These are but a few highlights of
what has been achieved before the conclusion and submission of the Jali
Commission work.
There are a number of areas where there is insufficient progress. The
anti-gang and rape strategies are still being worked out with the assistance of
external expert partners; the offender rehabilitation path introduced as part
of marshalling the implementation of the White Paper with its focus on
rehabilitation has yet to be established as a new culture in our centres.
Minister Balfour said: "Many reports on the Jali Commission literally got
carried away by the sensation and juicy details and became devoid of a critical
context for people to know in order to make informed decisions on these
issues." He said other reports were a typical example of "throwing away the
baby with the bath water," which served the interest of fraudsters and their
syndicates instead of millions of South Africans longing for good governance
and development.
The Minister appealed to all users of the full Jali Commission's Report to
exercise caution in handling people's names in line with the key tenets of the
Constitution, which include the presumption of innocence of the accused until
proven guilty. He further called for the respect of the rights of people merely
mentioned in the report without any substantive evidence obtained to warrant a
recommendation for investigation and sanction by the Jali Commission.
Minister Balfour reiterated his Department's stance of Zero Tolerance on
Fraud and Corruption, undertaking to do all in his power to clean up the
department. He acknowledged that there is a long way to go to reach the ideal
correctional system whose dominant culture repels unethical behaviour.
NB: The report can be accessed from the following websites: http://www.dcs.gov.za / http://www.info.gov.za as from 16h00 on Monday, 6
November 2006.
Enquiries:
Manelisi Wolela
Cell: 083 626 0304
Luphumzo Kebeni
Cell: 082 453 2244
Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
6 November 2006
