Taxpayers pick up R291m legal bill for cops behaving badly

IN the last financial year the national police department spent 76% more defending itself in court than it did in 2012.

According to the police’s annual reports, the department spent R291-million on its legal defence in 2013-2014 — compared with the R165-million it spent the previous year.

And the police are responsible for more than a third — 38% — of the total expenditure on legal fees by all 33 of South Africa’s national departments this year.

The entire national government has spent a total of R759million on legal fees in 2014.

There is also an increase in the potential cost of legal actions brought against the police.

Every department lists in its annual report the amount of money all those projected legal claims brought against it could cost, were it to lose them all, under the heading “contingent liabilities”. Here again, the police department’s huge legal obligations drive the overall national costs.

The 33 national departments identified a potential R34.5-billion in contingent liabilities in 2013-14, down R1.4-billion from the previous financial year, when it stood at R35.8-billion.

But the police alone are responsible for R20.5-billion — or 60% — of that total.

The police department’s 201314 annual report breaks down the nature of the claims against it. The biggest are the following:

Vehicle accidents: R176-million;

Legal expenses: R494-million; ý Assault: R853-million; ý Shooting incidents: R1.5-billion; and

Police actions: R16.6-billion; Defending claims brought as a result of “police actions” thus constitutes the biggest percentage of the police department’s total contingent liability, at 81%.

In the past five years, all 33 national departments have spent a total of R2.4bn in court

In 2009-10, that figure was R5.6-billion.

And, just like its legal fees, the police department’s legal liability has dramatically increased in the past five years.

In 2009-10, the department had identified a contingent liability of R7.5-billion. But this steadily increased to R20.5-billion, an average increase of R3billion per year.

The police have managed to slow the rate of the increase, from 47% in 2010-11 to 11% this past year, but in absolute terms, the amount continues to grow. As of 2013-14 it is R13.1-billion more than it was five years ago, an increase of 174%.

The rate of increase for both the police’s legal fees and its contingent liability far outstrips inflation, which has averaged around 6% a year for the same period.

Despite the size of the problem, the department’s 2010-14 five-year strategic plan made no mention of the police’s enormous legal bills. Neither does the department’s 2014-15 annual strategic plan.

The department’s 2013-14 annual report lists all resolutions adopted by the standing committee on public accounts — passed by parliament and binding on the department — but none mention the escalating contingent liability figure.

According to the annual report, the post of head of legal advisory services in the department was vacant at the end of the financial year.

The department of police may be the biggest driver of the combined cost of legal fees across all 33 national departments — but these costs have risen throughout the civil service in the past five years, from R334-million in 2009-10 to R759-million in 2013-14.

In the past five years, all 33 national departments have spent a total of R2.4-billion in court.

The increase over the past financial year was again particularly acute, jumping from R528- million in 2012-13 to R759-million in 2013-14, an increase of 43.6%.

The most legally active departments were the Police (R291-million); Justice and Constitutional Development (R135million) and Rural Development and Land Reform (R104-million). A significant number of the claims brought against the department of rural development involve land restitution and are no doubt responsible for significant spend in this regard.

Despite spending R4.4-million on legal fees in 2012-13, the Presidency’s 2013-14 annual report listed no legal costs under this line item, the only national department to return this figure.

The R4.4-million refers to outside services contracted by the department — and the Presidency has made a number of inhouse appointments in this regard. The most significant was the appointment of President Jacob Zuma’s longtime legal representative, Michael Hulley, as special adviser.

The president is on record as saying that, while he was serving Zuma part time, Hulley was paid “at the rate of R693.77 per hour”. He was paid R8.8-million by the Department of Justice to represent Zuma from 2009 to 2013. Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za