Scopa: Why bail out SOEs but not NPA?
Head of prosecutions Shamila Batohi says the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is crippled by budget constraints and is pleading for the government to intervene.
Batohi told the Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in Cape Town on Wednesday.
She told the committee that there is currently a 21% vacancy rate in the authority.
"We have over 700 vacant prosecutor posts , from 2015 there has been a freeze on recruitment in the NPA because of government's attempt to reduce the compensation budget."
Resource issues, skill issues, corruption issues and a lack of will has resulted in big cases falling through the cracks, Batohi added.
Committee's chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa has lashed government for bailing out other struggling SOEs but fails to adequately equip the NPA with resources.
"We set ourselves for failure as a country if we do not fund the very institutions which assist the process of restoring good governance, consequence management and recoveries in preventing loses," says Hlengwa