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Although crime levels increased between 1998 and 1999, national government spending on criminal justice decreased in real terms according to the 2000/2001 budget announced in February this year. Over the past five years the SAPS has received the least actual increase in its budget of all the criminal justice departments.
Spending on the criminal justice system (police, courts and prisons) increased by 5.4% in 2000/2001 compared to the previous budget year. With inflation currently at 7%, this represents a decrease in real terms. Apart from housing (the only department whose budget was reduced) most other sectors fared better than criminal justice. Social welfare spending increased by 5.5%, education by 6% and health by 8%. The department of defence received the greatest increase — 33% in 1999/2000.
As a proportion of the national budget, spending on criminal justice has declined marginally from 10.8% in the 1999/2000 budget year to 10.3% in 2000/2001. Of the total budget allocation of R24.21 billion to these departments, the greatest proportion — R15.45 billion — was allocated to the SAPS. R5.78 billion went to correctional services and R2.98 billion to justice (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Proportion of criminal justice budget allocated to each department, 2000/2001
Source: 2000 National Expenditure Survey
Although the police receive the largest chunk of the criminal justice budget, the trend over the past five years has been for the SAPS to receive the least actual increase of all three departments. Compared to the last budget year, the department of correctional services received the greatest increase (11.4%). The department of justice’s budget increased by 10.7% while the police service allocation increased by only 5.5% (Figure 2). Considering that the SAPS has a history of annual over-expenditure, this figure actually represents a decrease in real terms at the current inflation rate.
Figure 2 % change in budgeted expenditure per department, 1996/97 - 2000/01
Source: 2000 National Expenditure Survey
The growth in spending on prisons can be attributed to the 70% increase in the prisoner population over the past six years. The total of 159 000 inmates held in the country’s jails in November 1999 is expected to increase to 207 000 in 2002. In order to accommodate these increasing numbers — a large proportion of which are unsentenced — the department aims to build seven new facilities in the next three years. (Despite this, overcrowding is still expected to average 77% in 2002). Two of these new prisons are being constructed through public-private partnerships that will operate the facilities on behalf of the department.
Personnel costs
Although all three departments allocate most of their budget to personnel costs, the proportion spent on salaries has been decreasing in the SAPS and in justice over the past four years (Figure 3). Of the three departments, the police spend the largest portion of their budget on personnel followed by the department of correctional services and justice.
Figure 3 Personnel expenditure as a proportion of the total budget in each department, 1996/7 - 2000/01
Source: 2000 National Expenditure Survey
Encouragingly the proportion of the police’s budget spent on personnel expenditure has decreased from 82% in 1997/98 to 77.5% or R11.98 billion in the year 2000. This is however still too high and leaves little money for improving resources, infrastructure and training required for effective police activities and operations. Given that the SAPS decreased in size by 12% between July 1995 and July 1999 from 143 000 to 126 500 employees, greater reductions in personnel expenditure would have been expected. But three issues have mitigated against this:
- salary increases
- the size of the management echelon which means that even though salary increases are weighted to benefit the lower ranks, the proportionally high number of managers who benefit from annual increases adds a real burden to the personnel costs
- increase in the number of national management divisions from five to ten (see article in this issue on the restructuring of the police department)
- the cost of retrenchment and severance packages.
Given its financial constraints it is unlikely that the police can employ substantially more people. The police would be well advised to maximise the productivity of the personnel at its disposal. The 11 700 police officers who do not have a driver’s licence need to be taught how to drive without delay. Moreover the 37 800 police officers who, in the words of the minister for safety and security Steve Tshwete, are ‘functionally illiterate’, need to be trained to read and write as a matter of urgency.
A positive development is the acknowledgement by the minister of finance that the increase of R1.1 billion to the police would provide for the development of the Automated Fingerprint Information System (AFIS) and electronic access to criminal records. This has severely weakened the police’s ability to access details on offenders, especially repeat offenders. Improvements here will be felt throughout the criminal justice system.
Increases in crime
The latest crime figures released by the SAPS show that overall, reported crime increased by 4.7% between 1998 and 1999, with notable increases in levels of robbery, housebreaking and theft. The police will be hard pressed to investigate such crimes, and bring the perpetrators of such crimes to court, with less money at its disposal.
The budget does however allocate R150 million to the new Scorpions unit based in the office of the national director of public prosecutions. This will enhance the state’s ability to investigate and prosecute priority crimes. The unit is, however, unlikely to take a lot of pressure off the police service which will continue to be responsible for investigating and preventing the vast majority of crimes.
Although budget allocations for criminal justice increased only marginally between 1999/2000 and 2000/2001, spending in the past decade has been more generous. Over the last nine budget years spending on the criminal justice system has outpaced the inflation rate. Spending on the police, justice and prison departments increased from R4.3 billion in 1990/91 to R23.5 billion in the 1999/2000 budget year — an increase of 450%. Over the same period the inflation rate increased by 159%.
During this time, levels of reported crime have increased significantly. There consequently seems to be no direct link between state spending on the criminal justice system and levels of reported crime. But the budget is the government’s primary policy tool and as such, the 2000/2001 budget must be disappointing from the police’s point of view.
Antoinette Louw
Institute for Security Studies
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