Protector asks Parliament for help
2010-09-07 13:43
Cape Town - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela on Tuesday appealed to Parliament to help with a number of problems experienced by her office.
Briefing the National Assembly's justice and constitutional development committee, Madonsela said her office was struggling to balance the call for reduced turnaround times, while improving the quality of investigations.
"The key challenges in this regard include inadequacy in the number of investigators and the need for capacity building on sharper investigation techniques," she said.
Organs of state also continued to pose problems when it came to providing speedy and comprehensive answers.
"For some, nothing is given until a threat of subpoena is included in a letter signed by the Public Protector."
Implementation
The implementation of the protector's reports was also not satisfactory.
While a few organs of state had implemented reports without question or delay, a growing number took their time.
A few had partially implemented, while a handful had disputed the findings and not implemented.
Madonsela said Parliament could support her office by periodically holding special debates to discuss the Special Report on Implementation of the Public Protector Reports and Remedial Action.
"At this debate, non-implementing organs of state that reject the findings of the Public Protector to be held accountable by being required to provide cogent reasons for rejecting such findings to be debated by Parliament."
Parliament should also engage the National Treasury regarding the review of the Public Protector's entire budget, taking into account the additional mandates added by new legislation.
These included the Executive Ethics Act, the Protected Disclosure Act, Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, and the Protection of Access to Information Act.
The increase in the number, complexity, and diversity of cases should also be taken into account in this regard, she said.
Immediate funding needed to be secured for existing chronic needs that had been highlighted in a Cabinet memorandum submitted to Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe.
Parliament also needed to address the issue of the salary of the Deputy Public Protector, and the justice committee and public accounts committee (Scopa), in particular, had to engage with the process of developing Public Protector Rules as soon as possible, Madonsela said.
Rules nearing completion
It is expected that the draft Public Protector Rules will be published in the Government Gazette within the next few weeks for general consideration, and the final version about two months later, Madonsela also said.
The rules would seek to standardise the Public Protector's processes to make organs of state aware of what was expected of them in terms of co-operating with the protector and what to expect if this was not forthcoming.
The rules would also inform the public of what to expect when lodging a complaint with the Public Protector, and standardise procedures and timelines.
Thus, the rules aimed to expedite the resolution of complaints, ensure compliance by organs of state guilty of failing the public, improve transparency in the protector's processes, and prevent complaints suffering secondary prejudice by further delays.
Madonsela said the draft rules were expected to be published early in October.
After incorporation of inputs received during the consultation process, the final rules would be published in the Gazette and tabled in the Assembly towards the end of November, she said
- SAPA