Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane was grilled about her office's over reliance on bailouts from the department of justice despite presenting a clean audit to parliament on Wednesday.
Questions around security at several offices were also raised with the public protector.
Public Protector SA (PPSA) CEO Thandi Sibanyoni revealed that the head office was the only one of the 17 offices nationwide that had warm bodies for security while the rest relied on CCTV and security provided by the landlords in some of the buildings they were renting.
Mkhwebane, accompanied by senior officials including Sibanyoni, tabled the institution's annual report for the 2020/2021 financial year to the justice and correctional services parliamentary portfolio committee.
She announced her office received a bailout of R30.5m in March from the justice department. She said because of the bailout, they were able to conduct investigations and continue as a going concern.
Portfolio chair Gratitude Magwanishe said for the past four years the office had relied on bailouts to complete its tasks. He asked if the office would be able to do its work without these.
While welcoming the clean audit, he added that it should reflect the work being done on the ground and the benefits should be felt by ordinary South Africans.
“Your office has serious pockets of excellence and serious pockets of the other,” Magwanishe said.
“We’re pleased you’re in a sustainable way, achieving and continue to achieve on your targets, which is what we’re propagating, however, there has to be strong correlation between performance and clean audit.
“We don’t want good statistics that have no impact on people. Audit opinions should be reflected in performance and performance should change the lives of people. Your interventions should bring justice to people, as you mentioned with your opening line.”
Responding to the question of bailouts, CFO Yalekile Lusibane said it should be noted the budget the public protector's office received was not enough and had continuously been reduced over the years.
“We're underfunded. There was a budget reduction of R16.1m that was effected by National Treasury in October 2020.
“The budget of PPSA has primarily been aligned directly to the remuneration of the funded posts and has not been reviewed against the operational and service delivery model.
“The implications of the significant statutory mandate expansions were never costed and budgeted for,” Lusibane said.
Despite Mkhwebane facing impeachment on grounds of alleged misconduct and incompetence, she remained in high spirits during the presentation and could be seen laughing with MPs.
She said she wanted her term to be characterised by the drive to take the services of the institution to grass roots communities, many of whom dwell on farms, in informal settlements, townships and rural villages.
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