In terms of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 1 of 1999), Government Departments, including the SAPS, must draft the following:

• The Strategic Plan is developed for a five-year period and sets out the SAPS’s policy, priorities and project plans, as approved by the executive authority, within the scope of available resources. The Strategic Plan focuses on strategic outcome-orientated goals for the institution as a whole and objectives for each of its main service delivery areas, aligned to its budget programmes.
• The Annual Performance Plan is linked to the Strategic Plan and sets out what the SAPS intends doing in the upcoming financial year and during the medium term expenditure framework in order to implement its Strategic Plan. The Annual Performance Plan sets out performance indicators and targets for budget programmes to facilitate the institution in realising its goals and objectives set out in the Strategic Plan.
• The Annual Report provides information on the performance of the SAPS in the preceding financial year for the purpose of oversight. The Annual Report looks at the institution’s performance relative to the targets set in the Annual Performance Plan and provides the audited annual financial statements. It reveals how the budget was implemented and the state of the institution’s financial management system.