Chairperson, Colleagues and Guests
I would like to dedicate my speech to our colleague, Honourable Zelda Jongbloed, who due to serious illness are unable to be present and deliver her budget vote speech today.
Here we are one year later, two different ministers, two different deputy ministers, two different committee chairpersons, an acting chairperson (again), and nothing has changed.
No respect for the Austerity Measures Document from National Treasury and no amended Ministerial Handbook as undertaken.
No surprise though, as the media was told in 2011 that this was a “classified, confidential document” and that they should submit a Promotion of Access to Information Act application to get a copy.
The DA-led Western Cape Government did the opposite: they govern with transparency and every page of their Handbook is marked “Open to public scrutiny” – nothing to hide in other words.
The February 2007 Ministerial Handbook, which details how taxpayers money is spent in terms of the perks available to the Executive and their spouses, is still lying on some Cabinet member’s desk waiting to be amended. The Department of Public Service and Administration already stated in 2014 that they are reviewing the Handbook with little to show.
I again, in a reply dated 8 November 2017, was informed that “the revised document will be presented to the President shortly for finalisation and implementation within the current financial year”.
This is how our money is spent:
Not only current Ministers and their deputies, MECs, Presiding Officers and their deputies in Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures, but also former Ministers, Deputy Ministers and their spouses still benefit.
Their travel privileges include:
- 48 single domestic flights in business class per annum for former Ministers and 24 for their spouses;
- 36 single domestic flights in business class per annum for former Deputy Ministers and 18 for their spouses; and
- 12 single domestic flights in business class per annum to widows/widowers of former Ministers or Deputy Ministers.
Spouses are included for international travel for Ministers which is a huge cost to the tax payer and is not necessary including air tickets, hotel fees and daily allowance. It has emerged that a staggering R873 366.68 was blown on international travel for the former Finance Minister’s spouse, Norma Gigaba, who accompanied him on investor roadshows in China, the United Kingdom and the United States.
All this whilst SAA is getting another bail-out: this time of R5.5 billion?
Then there is the abnormal, not needed luxury cars to do the “people’s work”: why on earth would a Deputy Minister buy a Porsche Cayenne? Only because he is not using his own money!
In the Western Cape Handbook members must choose an official vehicle worth no more than 40% of their annual salary. In the National Handbook, wait for it, the figure is 70%. If the National Handbook provisions are considered with the current bloated Cabinet in mind, two official cars in Cape Town and Pretoria equates to 72 vehicles amounting to R3.5 million per Minister and R2.9 million per Deputy Minister. This is truly shocking in a country with 9.5 million people unemployed and demonstrates how out of touch the Executive has become.
In the Western Cape Handbook members have to fly economy class unlike their national counterparts.
In the Western Cape Handbook members cannot obtain departmentally-sponsored credit cards in their own names unlike their national counterparts.
Then there is the issue of Minister’s offices – can the Minister please inform us on whether she was able to fix the bloated office she inherited from her predecessor, Faith Muthambi, with 26 people in her private office while the handbook recommends only 10? If not, why not?
Private offices continue to cost millions to the tax payer. The Minister of Defence’s private office will cost R76.5 million this year while National Treasury will only spend R4.1 million. Why is this? Because the current Ministerial Handbook is ignored and no action is taken against Ministers not following it. We need enforcement and consistency.
When it comes to hotel accommodation, the national Ministerial Handbook is extraordinary lax. It allows Members, their spouses and dependent children accommodation in “any hotel or hostelry”. It further gives vague explanation of “Accommodation and subsistence expenses should be kept as low as possible
by making use of hotels which suit the status of Members, but which have reasonable rates”.
Remember in 2011 the then-Minister of Police, Nathi Mthetwa, had spent R734 448 on accommodation in at five star hotels in Cape Town and Durban?
In the Western Cape Handbook Members must, as a rule, avoid staying in five star hotels.
Minister, what happened to the Public Protector’s 2011 submission that recommended tariffs for Minister’s accommodation be published twice a year?
The Handbook is too lenient too often, allowing excessive expenditure. Ministers have therefore used the Handbook as an excuse for mad expenditure which cannot be justified given the levels of inequality we
live with.
If the President and the Minister is serious about helping Treasury reign in the runaway budget deficit, he will have to cut executive spending by finalising a stricter and more frugal Ministerial Handbook, as well as cutting the overall size of the cabinet. Government cannot honestly expect South Africans to tighten their belts when it is doing the exact opposite.
The bloated Executive is far surpassed by the currently bloated Public Service. While we commend the hard work of many officials the Public Service has become top heavy and bloated taking away money from key services and social welfare.
The Minister has failed to cross the first crucial hurdle in her new position. As it stands today, the threeyear Public-Sector Wage Negotiations is yet to be concluded and is now over 45 days overdue. It is worrying that the Minister hired as part of her team members that were involved in pervious failed negotiations.
Based on current estimates the government is set to spend R587 billion on public servants this year and is expected to swell to R630 billion by 2019/2020. We call on the Minister and by extension the President
to ensure a more efficient government that focusses on delivery not bonusses and large paychecks. While the ANC government brought us the VAT increase, the DA has called on government could to cut the public-sector wage bill in order to save money. Not paying performance bonuses to civil servants would
save R2.9bn.
Public Sector institutions are struggling with funding under the Department. For example, the National School of Government struggled to raise enough revenue on the training trading account. The revenue target was R93 million generated by 31 December 2017 while the Department only raised R73.2 million.
One key institution that keeps the public sector in check is the Public Service Commission that provide analysis and investigations into the activities of government. The PSC agreed to investigate the allegations of nepotism and hiring practices of the former Minister Muthambi’s private office. But the organisation pleaded for more funding to ensure transparent and well-run governance. We need to empower organisations to fulfil their mandates.
Despite the prescriptions in the Public Service Act and the Public Service Regulations of 2016, shocking statistics revealed that 2 704 state employees were still actively doing business with National and Provincial Governments during the period 1 April 2017 to 31 January 2018 to the tune of R8 billion. This
gross violation demands serious action.
Minister, you are new in this department. Be different from your fellow Cabinet colleagues: take up the President’s “send me” call and be the one to fix the public service.