Bid to cut state costs gets mixed results

THE Treasury’s efforts to tighten the government’s belt by slashing spending on consultants, travel, subsistence and entertainment has had mixed results.

The preliminary expenditure by national and provincial departments for these items in 2015-16 amounted to R35.2bn compared with R49.5bn in 2014-15 and R25bn in 2013-14.

The amount spent on consultants fell to R25bn from the previous year’s R31bn, travel and subsistence rose slightly to R9.2bn (R9.1bn), and catering, entertainment and venue rental went up to R927.4m (R868.7m), a reply by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to a parliamentary question raised by DA finance spokesman David Maynier shows.

The Treasury introduced mandatory cost-containment measures across the government three years ago to rein in spending.

Maynier said the Treasury had received numerous requests for deviations from the rules. These mainly concerned the use of business-class travel, debit cards and hotel accommodation costing more than the stipulated limit.

They also included a request from Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba for his staff to travel business class. The motivation for the deviation from cost-containment measures read: “The minister was inconvenienced and had to further wait for the disembarking of the personal assistant from another terminal to be able to proceed with the trip which resulted in the minister arriving late for scheduled appointments.”

In refusing Gigaba’s request, the Treasury said these time delays should be taken into account when planning official trips.

“To National Treasury’s credit, it turned down 22 of 28 requests for deviations from cost-containment measures between April 1 2015 and July 31 2016,” Maynier said.

“The minister of finance is clearly desperately trying to hold the fiscal line but his belttightening measures are being resisted by ministers and officials too accustomed to the high life.”