The South African Police Service (SAPS) does not have the capacity to proactively identify members of the force who fail to disclose whether they are earning salaries from outside work or doing business with the state. The current system of voluntary application relies on employees being honest enough to make the disclosure, SAPS officials told Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts in a presentation Tuesday. Applications for approval have to be made or renewed annually. The officials, led by Deputy Police Minister Bongani Nkongi, briefed the committee on the management of conflicts of interests within SAPS. An audit by the auditor-general in 2015-16 identified 103 cases of police officers doing business with SAPS, valued in total at R14m. This was before regulations were promulgated in August 2016 prohibiting government employees from doing business with the state. Prior to this, SAPS employees could apply to undertake outside remunerative work.
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