In response to parliamentary questions submitted by the Democratic Alliance (DA), Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel revealed that officials within the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) spent R7.8 million on business class flights and put 16 employees on sabbatical while the economy is crashing.
These responses come after questions were submitted almost 4 months ago – a clear contravention of Rule 146 of the National Assembly’s Standing orders. The rule dictates that questions posed by Members of Parliament to Ministers should be answered within 10 working days, failing which they should apply to the Speaker of the National Assembly for a further extension to provide responses. This is a clear indication that the DTIC and Minister Patel have been trying their utmost to hide this information from the public.
While the DA supports the upskilling of civil servants in order to improve service delivery to members of the public, we find it unconscionable that since January 2019, 16 mid-senior officials were placed on sabbatical leave (with pay). All while the Department’s leadership continuously complains about the high levels of vacancies within their ranks.
According to the responses received; 6 employees were placed on 12 months of leave, 1 on 10 months of leave and the remaining 9 employees on periods of leave ranging from 2 ½ months to 9 months.
We are reliably informed that several of the aforementioned officials rank as highly as Deputy Director-General and this implies that many core functions within the Department are not being adequately led and managed by the staff assigned to do so.
Furthermore, it was revealed that for the period 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019, “The dti had a total of 192 transactional business class tickets booked for officials at a total cost of R7 869 924. EDD had a total of 42 transactional domestic business class tickets booked for officials at a total cost of R395 472”. This all occurred while Government’s public objective was to contain expenditure on travel due to the existing fiscal challenges faced by Treasury.
In light of these findings, the DA will submit follow up questions to the Minister to ensure that it is made known who these officials are on extended periods of sabbatical leave and who is responsible for the exorbitant expenditure on business class flights.
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