South Africa
Ministerial handbook 'won't stop spending'─── 07:00 Mon, 01 Jul 2019
The recently revised ministerial handbook fails to set limitations on lavish ministerial spending and, in its current form, is nothing more than a blank cheque for ministers to spend the people's money on their own private affairs, says the DA.
The DA would ask Parliament's public service and administration portfolio committee to consider making representations to Public Service and Administration Minister, Senzo Mchunu, on why the handbook in its current form was unsustainable and should be drastically amended to cut back on wasteful spending by members of the executive, DA spokesman Leon Schreiber said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had previously committed to a revised ministerial handbook that would cut lavish ministerial expenditure. However, this had turned out to be just another broken promise. The revised ministerial handbook did exactly the opposite, he said.
"For example, the revised handbook does not limit the amount a minister or deputy minister is allowed to spend on ministerial vehicles. The previous ministerial handbook had an unacceptably high tolerance for ministers to buy vehicles, a bill which cost South African taxpayers at least R50 million in the last three years.
"The revised handbook removes all limits on what ministers are allowed to spend on ministerial vehicles, allowing ministers to spend more than R1.6 million per vehicle – and the bill will far exceed what we saw in the past," Schreiber said.
The new handbook also increased the amount that ministers could spend on personal security from R100,000 per year to R250,000. South Africans would also have to foot the bill for former ministers and deputy ministers’ business class flight tickets. This provision implied that South Africans would on average pay R192,000 per year per former minister and about R17 million per year in total.
"To add insult to injury, South African taxpayers are also expected to pay for domestic services at ministers’ residences, and even their DSTV, at three houses per minister," he said.
"The DA is disappointed in the revised ministerial handbook and the lack of consulting of any other parties. The DA will fight for drastic amendments in order to put a stop to such excessive spending of public money by politicians. South Africans pay tax to improve South Africa, not to upkeep ANC cadres’ lavish lifestyles," Schreiber said.
African News Agency (ANA)
