President Thabo Mbeki has mused, for the first time in public, about the possibility of relocating command of the elite Scorpions police unit from the national prosecuting authority to the police commissioner.

Citing "occasional" tensions between the police force and the Scorpions, Mbeki told a news conference on Tuesday that "we have to deal with this. The question is around the location of the Scorpions."

Given the rows which have erupted in the US over the failure of various security forces to share information ahead of the September 11 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, it seems there might, on the face of it, be a case for ensuring that inter-force rivalries and jealousies do not interfere with crime prevention in SA.

But there are far stronger arguments for preserving the status quo in the case of the Scorpions.

For a start, the unit has, by any local standards, been a huge success. The Scorpions have attacked their targets, often high-profile and powerful people, with purpose and courage.

And, leaving aside the obvious examples like investigations into Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Scorpions have also shown that they are perfectly capable of combining with the police, particularly in fraud cases recently in the Eastern Cape.

A deeper argument also suggests itself. If corruption has indeed worsened in SA in the past few years - and the evidence suggests it may have - then we should be looking to those successful policing models in countries with similar problems.

The most obvious derive from old, Napoleonic, legal codes like Spain, France and Italy, where police are attached to investigating and prosecuting magistrates who are able to lead, without distraction or interference, investigations into institutions and people that might otherwise intimidate an ordinary detective or policeman.

The ability of Italian magistrates, backed by dedicated police units, to delve into the tax affairs of the Berlusconi family or into the Mafia is largely responsible for the decline of the Mafia power and for bringing the Italian prime minister to account for his many controversial business dealings.

Similarly, in Spain, prosecutors working with dedicated police were able to a few years ago to jail the head of Spanish intelligence and an interior minister for conducting a "dirty war" against Basque separatists.

By arguing for the status quo, we are not casting aspersions on the police, though, clearly, the force suffers from severe moral, management and corruption problems of their own.

If, as it seems, Mbeki his concerned about tension between police and the Scorpions it is most likely that these reach him via the leadership of the police and not the rank and file.

But if SA Police Service chiefs are unhappy with the split responsibilities, or if there are, indeed, deeper complaints abut the better pay and working conditions the Scorpions might enjoy, the Mbeki's job is to manage the problem and not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Political considerations have already lost SA the expertise and dedication of the former Heath Unit. They must under no circumstances be allowed, now, to dilute the effectiveness, experience and public credibility of arguably the best police unit in the country. This is a management, not a political, issue.

Justice Minister Penuell Maduna can play a vital role in managing the difficulties that arise because of the division of command. Just because it may be difficult does not mean it cannot or should not be done.

And if there is no other recourse, than the Scorpions should be reconstituted as a separate force. But ideally, they must be left under the command of the National Prosecuting Authority.

With acknowledgement to the Business Day.