Mkhwebane ‘found office in disarray’ when she became public protector

Busisiwe Mkhwebane says she found the public protector’s office in disarray when she became public protector in 2016. 

Mkhwebane was giving evidence in parliament before the section 194 inquiry into her fitness to hold office. 

“To my dismay, I found the institution in some state of disarray,” she said. “I had to hit the ground running, literally. Not having received any job specifications or training worsened things.  

“Some of the issues I identified as concerning included huge backlogs in respect of different categories of cases, especially the bread-and-butter issues, what we call administrative justice and service delivery matters … the numbers were higher,” Mkhwebane said.

She said there were staff shortages and security clearance issues.

“There were persistent governance issues and audit queries.... There was low staff morale. There were some files missing, we were not getting information on some files.”

Mkhwebane said there were also issues of transformation and affirmative procurement, especially in relation to legal services.

“For instance, the repeated utilisation of the same white law firms without a panel of attorneys, in breach of the constitution.” 

Mkhwebane said there was a problem with the payment of service providers in terms of Treasury regulations. “It was a challenge paying service providers within 30 days. There were a number of small businesses suffering and not being paid on time.”

She said there was excessive reliance on consultants in core functions. “There were a number of reports which were outsourced.”

She said though the office was allowed to acquire services from other companies under the Public Protector Act, the problem was that there were no clear terms of reference when the investigations were outsourced.

She said the arrangement was that they should be paid R70,000 per investigation. “Some were paid without the delivery of a service.”

The inquiry continues on Thursday, when Mkhwebane is expected to present analyses of the reports she produced.  

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