MTBPS 2022: Government plans to increase funding for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2023, for it to establish a digital forensic data centre, among other allocations.
This is based on National Treasury’s 2022 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), which notes that further insight on this will be detailed in next year’s financial budget.
Despite additional funding of R8.7 billion for the police department in the 2022 budget, the MTBPS indicates that high levels of crime and corruption continue to undermine public safety, social cohesion, infrastructure investment and economic growth.
Therefore, the 2023 budget will provide further allocations to support safety and security, it states.
“To improve the fight against corruption and advance the recommendations of the State Capture Commission, the 2023 Budget will also add to the budgets of the National Prosecuting Authority, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the Financial Intelligence Centre and the South African Revenue Service.”
For the NPA, the MTBPS says the funding will be used to: “Increase its capacity in specialised tax units and the Investigating Directorate, procure specialist prosecution services for complex matters (especially financial crimes), appoint forensic auditors and accountants to deal with high-priority asset forfeiture matters, establish a digital forensic data centre, and finance increased witness protection operational costs.
“Additional funding will enable the Financial Intelligence Centre to increase its human resource capacity and help the SIU initiate civil litigation, following the State Capture Commission recommendations.”
According to the policy statement, additional resources for the NPA, the SIU and the Financial Intelligence Centre will be outlined in the 2023 budget.
“These resources will help the institutions to identify sophisticated financial crimes, prosecute offenders, and recover money and assets that are the proceeds of fraud and corruption.”
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