Cape Town — The Department of Correctional Services has explained its decision to out-source its recruitment functions to external recruitment agencies, saying the move has helped expedite the filling of vacant posts in the department.

Human Resource Deputy Commissioner, Phumla Mathibela, told the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services the department did not have the capacity to handle large numbers of job applications, hence the decision to bring in recruitment agencies.

"The department currently has a backlog of 2 406 posts, and because of the phasing in of the seven-day policy, a further 3057 posts need to be filled.

"The capacity of the Department's human resource components is not sufficient to deal with this task," she said.

A bloated salary bill emanating from employees' weekend overtime claims forced the department to introduce the seven-day week system, where the weekend is treated as normal working days instead of overtime.

Members of Parliament had expressed concern over the department's decision to outsource as this had cost implications.

Apart from fast-tracking the recruitment process, Ms Mathebula said the decision to outsource was also meant to address fears and suspicions of favoritism within the department's recruitment process.

"The independent and impartial service which can be rendered by the agencies will eliminate the basic forms of corruption experienced by the department," she said.

ITP, SA Human Resource, Grey Holdings and Pinpoint One, are the three agencies that were selected by the department to handle job applications.

According to Ms Mathibela, the department's R8 million per year contract will expire in 2007.

She said as there was a strong possibility the department's human resource component would be fully capacitated by then, it was likely the contract would not be renewed.