The Auditor General has pointed to serious discrepancies in figures reported by the South African Police Service, noting both the overstatement and understatement of crime-fighting achievements.

This is set out on the latest SAPS Annual Report, and the AG’s findings for the 2014/25 year.

For example, the SAPS claimed to have recovered 244 firearms that had been stolen from it, but the audit suggested that this number was higher than what had been achieved.

The AG also questioned claims that contact crimes in the 30 most seriously affected police jurisdiction had been reduced by 4.7%, against a target of 12.3%. It said that this claim could not be verified and the true outcome might be lower or higher.

It could also not verify the true number of cases of crime involving economic infrastructure and recovery of vehicles (although on both cases, the AG said that the numbers were likely higher than the SAPS’ claims).

Some numbers cited by the SAPS were found to be understatements of its performance. The target of arrests in cases of attacks by organised crime on construction sites was 50%; the police had claimed 54%, but the AG found that the real number was 65%.

The AG said that the problems were likely a result of deficient controls than of deliberate manipulation.

The Annual Report noted that there were ongoing weaknesses in the SAPS data management systems. “Management did not implement adequate controls to improve audit outcomes on performance information”, it said this could have an adverse effect on SAPS work more broadly.

Written by The Daily Friend and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.