Hawks aiming to fly solo and end reliance on external forensic accountants

JOHANNESBURG -The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also known as the Hawks, is working to curb dependence on external forensic accountants by building in-house capacity. 

The directorate engaged members of the media on Thursday, outlining its challenges. 

As a specialised crime-busting unit, many of the Hawks' cases require forensic analysis of financial statements. 

However, Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya said there's limited capacity within the agency’s ranks for this kind of accounting.

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Lebeya said the Hawks usually have to outsource its forensic assignments to private accounting firms. 

"And when we make use of external service providers, it's not a cheap process, it's very much expensive. I was faced with a decision where I had to decide as to whether I pay R1,2 million for the investigation where the amount stolen was something like R40,000," said Lebeya.

Lebeya said increasing the Hawks' in-house capacity is highly dependent on the available budget.