Replies by the Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor to questions I posed reveal some shocking facts. I asked the Minister about the amount her Ministry has spent on legal fees.
In the last 3 years an astronomical 5217 legal court actions have been fought by Home Affairs. These court actions involve Immigration Services, Labour, Civil Services and Claims for damages arising either from contractual or delictual obligations.
What this means in Rands is that in the 2009/10 financial year, the Department paid an unbelievable R22 806 347,00 towards legal costs. In the following year Home Affairs paid R21 396 000,00 on legal costs but in 2011/12 paid more than the previous 2 years combined amount of R46 339 000,00. These figures are mind-blowing.
Imagine how much more Home Affairs could’ve done if it had not wasted R90 541 347,00 in the last 3 years on legal matters.
This is possible as most of these court cases were Home Affair’s own doing. If Home Affairs did what it was supposed to in the first place this out-of-control expenditure wouldn’t be happening.
Home Affairs needs to ensure that they reduce administrative errors; deal with applications on time, don’t lose documents, (why are documents not dealt with electronically?) and tightened up verification processes. These are such simply, easy to implement things. In the meantime The Minister and her Department does nothing about improving this situation whilst her legal bill continues to go up.
Shocking!
No comments:
Post a Comment