Public Protector budget shortfall: Time for independent funding model
22 October 2014
Today the Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela, presented her office's annual financial report to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services which revealed that her office is unable to fully discharge its constitutional mandate due to a 30% shortfall in its budget. She indicated that her office would need at least R100 million more per year to be able to get to the increasing number of cases reported to her.
Given recent attempts by the ANC and its representatives in Parliament to undermine the office of the Public Protector, it is clear that her office will not be capacitated as required. The ANC fears a fully-funded Public Protector.
The time has come for the Public Protector and other Chapter 9 institutions to be funded independently of government departments. The executive should not be in charge of funding the Public Protector, or any other institutions charged with holding the executive to account. President Jacob Zuma and his cronies simply cannot be trusted with this task.
Therefore the DA will move for Parliament to establish a Standing Committee on Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy, so that these institutions can be funded directly by Parliament. If the ANC then wishes to deny the Public Protector funding, they can do so in full view of the opposition and the public.
In September 2006 the National Assembly appointed a multi-party ad hoc committee to review the Chapter 9 institutions. The report that followed his review became known as the Asmal Report which found that:
"The location of the budgets of these institutions within the budget allocations of specific government departments impacts negatively on the perceived independence of the institutions and creates a false impression that the institutions are accountable to the respective government departments for the use of their finances."
The report recommended that the budgets of all bodies identified by the Constitution should be part of Parliament's Budget Vote. This is clearly in line with what the DA is advocating for.
But the ANC and its elected representatives in government have shown complete contempt for the Public Protector and her work. Most notably, the ANC outright refusal to give meaning to the remedial action outlined in her Nkandla report ‘Secure in Comfort' which found that President Jacob Zuma is liable to pay a portion of the R246 million of public money used for upgrades at Nkandla.
We must safeguard the independence and investigative capacity of the Public Protector and other Chapter 9 institutions. President Zuma and the ANC would love nothing more than for the Public Protector's office to not be able to effectively investigate corruption perpetrated at the hands of the Executive.
We will not allow that to happen. The Public Protector must be appropriately resourced to be able to investigate every instance of corruption reported to her office. The first step is ensuring that her budget comes from Parliament, and not from the Executive.
Statement issued by Glynnis Breytenbach MP, DA Shadow Minister of Justice, October 22 2014
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