Wasteful Expenditure: What's happened to Task Team report?
I have written a letter to Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi enquiring about the status of the Task Team set up by government over a year ago (in July 2009) to review government expenditure and requested that he inform us as to when its findings will be announced. A copy of the DA's Wasteful Expenditure Monitor report was provided along with the letter.
A copy of the letter follows below.
The long delay seems to suggest the government is not serious about turning the wasteful expenditure tide, as not a day passed by without yet more examples of personal indulgence trumping service delivery. This kind of anti-poor behaviour is coming to define this administration.
Just two days after the DA released a one-year review of our Wasteful Expenditure Monitor report, another national minister and the Premier of North West Province has been implicated in wasteful and excessive spending. Yesterday, the Saturday Star reported that Minister of Higher Education and Training Dr. Blade Nzimande spent 15 days staying at a luxurious 5 star hotel in Cape Town, costing over R40 000. Today, both City Press and Rapport have revealed that North West Premier Maureen Modiselle has ordered a new BMW costing R1,1 million while her current official car sits in an auto repair shop with some minor damage.
Unfortunately, these incidents add to the trend identified by the DA of senior government officials preferring to indulge themselves instead of serving the interests of the South African public. The DA's Wasteful Expenditure Monitor report, released on Thursday, noted that numerous ANC Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the National Government departments and entities that report to them have spent close to R 1.5 billion of public funds on unnecessary luxuries such as new luxury cars, prolonged stays in five-star hotels, tickets to major sporting events and self-congratulatory advertising.
This is money that could have been better spent on providing services to ordinary South Africans, especially the poor.
It is imperative that the ANC National Government follow through with its July 2009 commitment that a Task Team, headed by Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi, would review government expenditure in light of the recent global economic crisis. According to the post-cabinet media briefing at the time, the Task Team's work forms part of a comprehensive expenditure review that would advise cabinet on matters such as ‘how the purchase of new vehicles should be handled'.
Letter to Public Service and Administration Minister, Richard Baloyi.
16 July 2010
Dear Minister Baloyi,
Re: Wasteful Expenditure Report, ministerial task team
Recent revelations that numerous national government departments, state-owned enterprises and ANC-run municipalities have spent over R 135 million of public funds on tickets to major sporting events, including the World Cup, stand in stark contrast to the sentiments expressed in a July 2009 Cabinet announcement that a ministerial task team would be established to review government expenditure in light of the global economic crisis.
Parliamentary replies received by the Democratic Alliance (DA), as well as stories uncovered by the news media have revealed numerous other examples of wasteful and fruitless expenditure by Ministers, Deputy Ministers and the National Government departments and entities that report to them. Added together, this amounts to R1.447 billion, enough to make a serious dent in the housing backlog or provide care to hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV/ Aids.
It has also become apparent that numerous national government departments, state-owned enterprises and municipalities have chosen to ignore Minister Gordhan's warning, back in 2009, that the state needs to be more careful in the way it managed its money.
Yesterday the DA released a report that catalogued items that we feel are items of wasteful and fruitless government expenditure. A copy of this report is provided with this letter. The primary purpose of the report was provide a comprehensive account of instances of wasteful and fruitless spending by members of the government over the past 12 months. It has so far tracked R 1.447 billion in wasted public funds. This represents an approximately R 500 million increase since the last Wasteful Expenditure Monitor report was released by the DA in April this year.
The attached annexures are divided into six sections, each providing a quantifiable index of a particular aspect of wasteful expenditure. Of particular concern to the DA is the fact that every single one of the Wasteful Expenditure Monitor indices we have been tracking has shown a marked increase since the last report we released in April 2010.
In light of this recent expenditure, we would once again like to enquire as to the status of the ministerial task team announced in July last year - in particular, when its findings will be announced.
According to the post-cabinet media briefing at the time, the Task Team's work forms part of a comprehensive expenditure review that would advise cabinet on matters such as ‘how the purchase of new vehicles should be handled'. It is in the interests of the South African public - and especially the poorest of our people - that your ministry, in conjunction with the Presidency, takes a moral stand and acts against those who waste public funds on unnecessary luxury items that do not assist the government in delivering services to the people.
The Democratic Alliance fully endorses a thorough review of government expenditure if it means more money will be directed towards areas where it is most needed, and not towards inflating the egos of government ministers.
I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Lindiwe Mazibuko, MP
Democratic Alliance National Spokesperson
cc Kgalema Motlanthe, MP
Deputy President & Leader of Government Business
cc Collins Chabane, MP
Minister in the Presidency (Performance Monitoring & Evaluation)
cc Trevor Manuel, MP
Minister in the Presidency (National Planning Commission)
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko, MP, Democratic Alliance national spokesperson, July 18 2010
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