R40.7m – and counting – for MPs’ travels

THE TAXPAYERS’ bill for ministerial and officialdom’s flights between the Union Buildings and Parliament has hit R40.7 million for the 2014/15 financial year – and that’s not the final tally yet.

Almost two-thirds of the cabinet has responded to the EFF’s parliamentary questions on how much each of the 34 ministries spent on flying, accommodating and transporting ministers, their deputies and officials between Pretoria, the seat of the executive, and Cape Town’s Parliament.

Full or partial answers have come from 14 ministers, another six referred the EFF to the non-specific general travel and subsistence line item in their 2014/15 reports, while two ministers requested more time to compile the information.

As it stands, the Cape TownPretoria travel expenditure equals around 7 percent of the R580m Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa told MPs in mid-June that the government had saved due to cost-cutting measures in the 2014/15 financial year.

The so-called “hair cuts”, or austerity measures targeting particularly travel, accommodation, catering and hiring consultants, were announced two years ago to help balance the national books.

It is unclear what happened to proposals announced in late 2013 to cut back on the size of departmental delegations from Pretoria to Parliament, and to look at the overall cost benefits of having a separate legislative and executive capital.

It appears the government is willing to carry the expense; previous suggestions of moving Parliament north sparked controversy and were abandoned. However, Parliament’s long-talked-about plans for video-conferencing facilities have yet to be realised.

To date only Tourism, Mineral Resources, Public Enterprises and the Ministry for Women in the Presidency have answered in full.

Their combined expenditure amounts to just short of R13.25m.

The Police Ministry this week followed in the footsteps of Rural Development, which last week said it was compiling the information.

The Police Ministry asked for more time to compile the information.

The final deadline is September 30, according to the Public Finance Management Act.