The State Security Agency (SSA) is in the process of re-vetting its agents after close to R1 billion was reportedly looted from a slush fund at the agency.

According to a report by the Sunday Times state security minister, Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, will look to dismantle the entire management structure of the SSA which she says was set up illegally to loot state funds.

However, sources speaking to the paper say that the re-vetting exercise is purely a purge aimed at getting rid of spies who are deemed loyal to former director-general Arthur Fraser and, by extension, former president Jacob Zuma.

While no information was provided on the vetting process, it is said to include a polygraph test, thorough background checks (including looking into personal and business associates), lifestyle audits and financial trails.

The re-vetting process is being conducted by the South African Police Service and the intelligence arm of the South African National Defence Force, with those who fail to obtain security clearance facing dismissal.

The Sunday Times notes that the SSA’s budget is classified, but speculates that the agency gets around R4 billion a year for operational expenses.

Citing Jacques Pauw’s book, The President’s Keepers, the report notes that the Principal Agent Network (PAN) – set up under Fraser to strengthen intelligence gathering capacity – may have looted up to R1 billion in the three years of its existence.

Under the project 293 cars — mostly luxury BMWs and Mercedes-Benz — were bought and R20 million spent to warehouse them in Gauteng and the Western Cape, states Pauw.

There has been a massive outcry in the intelligence community regarding the re-vetting process, however Letsatsi-Duba believes that those calling on spooks to defy her orders were the main culprits in the looting spree.

You can read the full story in today’s Sunday Times.

Read: Government needs to stop making taxpayers the enemy: Duvenage