Abstract:
The article assesses the state of oversight of the budget and expenditure of the
South African civilian intelligence services (now called the State Security Agency).
The roles of various structures, including the National Treasury, the Executive,
the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI) and the Auditor-General,
during the period 1995 to 2014, are examined. The article argues that whilst the
system of financial oversight has strengths, there are systemic weaknesses which
have resulted in uneven levels of financial accountability over the years. The
article therefore proposes that measures to strengthen the system of oversight are
needed to improve financial accountability. These include reforming the relevant
legislation and providing more robust powers to the oversight actors.
