5. The challenge of filling vacancies was mentioned. The vacancy rate is 22%. This affects achieving the target of employing two prosecutors for each court. While the NPA is able to bring people in at the lowest level through its aspirant prosecutor programme, it struggles to recruit more external candidates at a senior level, although the hope is that the OSD will make a difference, allowing the NPA to target practicing legal professionals. However, there is a shortage of funds to implement the OSD, and the NPA will need to approach National Treasury to request an additional allocation. 6. A related challenge is that the cost for each employee within the NPA far exceeds the NPA's budget for compensation of employees.