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Cabinet ministers' car hire bills are a "reckless" use of state funds, Democratic Alliance MP Ian Ollis has said after querying car rental protocol for government use.
"Earlier this parliamentary term, I submitted a question to each member of the executive to determine to how much had been spent on car hire for each minister and deputy minister since March 2010," he said.
The replies received so far indicated that most ministries had spent significant amounts to hire luxury vehicles to transport ministers and deputy ministers.
"Although a certain level of expenditure on car hire is quite acceptable, the DA regards the trend that has emerged from the information contained in these replies to be of deep concern. For a member of the executive to spend hundreds of thousands of rands worth of state funds on car hire raises serious questions about the degree of financial prudence being exercised by the [President Jacob] Zuma Cabinet," Ollis said.
KEEPING A CLOSED BOOK
It was also disappointing to note that some ministers had failed to supply the information requested, with the minister of labour simply ignoring important sections of the parliamentary question.
The five ministries that had supplied the information requested - public works, arts and culture, mineral resources, tourism, and trade and industry - had spent R1 176099 on car hire since March 2010, with public works alone spending R436 911.
The tourism ministry spent R310 888, arts and culture spent R118 083, mineral resources R251 034, and trade and industry R59 183. It was of serious concern that the deputy tourism minister alone used rented cars on 32 occasions, spending R264 201 of state funds in the process.
"This constitutes wasteful and fruitless expenditure, and further confirms the DA's suspicions that excessive spending on car rentals is a Cabinet-wide problem," Ollis reiterated.
The labour ministry rented cars on 12 occasions, but failed to indicate the total cost, and the economic development ministry failed to answer the question.
Ollis said that in the DA-run Western Cape, the ministerial handbook had been rewritten to curb excessive spending on items such as car hire and the purchase of luxury cars. This stood in stark contrast to the reluctance with which the updating of the national ministerial handbook had been managed.
"Despite assertions by Minister of Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi that amendments to the national handbook would be made public certainly before the [Soccer] World Cup, the Zuma government continues to stall on the release of the changes."
Ollis said he would submit follow-up questions to each minister to request additional details concerning their and their deputies's car hire spending, such as why greater use was not made of vehicles from the government fleet.
In addition, he would write to Zuma to ask for an explanation for the delay in releasing the amendments to the ministerial handbook, and to determine when these amendments would be made public.
"Earlier this parliamentary term, I submitted a question to each member of the executive to determine to how much had been spent on car hire for each minister and deputy minister since March 2010," he said.
The replies received so far indicated that most ministries had spent significant amounts to hire luxury vehicles to transport ministers and deputy ministers.
"Although a certain level of expenditure on car hire is quite acceptable, the DA regards the trend that has emerged from the information contained in these replies to be of deep concern. For a member of the executive to spend hundreds of thousands of rands worth of state funds on car hire raises serious questions about the degree of financial prudence being exercised by the [President Jacob] Zuma Cabinet," Ollis said.
KEEPING A CLOSED BOOK
It was also disappointing to note that some ministers had failed to supply the information requested, with the minister of labour simply ignoring important sections of the parliamentary question.
The five ministries that had supplied the information requested - public works, arts and culture, mineral resources, tourism, and trade and industry - had spent R1 176099 on car hire since March 2010, with public works alone spending R436 911.
The tourism ministry spent R310 888, arts and culture spent R118 083, mineral resources R251 034, and trade and industry R59 183. It was of serious concern that the deputy tourism minister alone used rented cars on 32 occasions, spending R264 201 of state funds in the process.
"This constitutes wasteful and fruitless expenditure, and further confirms the DA's suspicions that excessive spending on car rentals is a Cabinet-wide problem," Ollis reiterated.
The labour ministry rented cars on 12 occasions, but failed to indicate the total cost, and the economic development ministry failed to answer the question.
Ollis said that in the DA-run Western Cape, the ministerial handbook had been rewritten to curb excessive spending on items such as car hire and the purchase of luxury cars. This stood in stark contrast to the reluctance with which the updating of the national ministerial handbook had been managed.
"Despite assertions by Minister of Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi that amendments to the national handbook would be made public certainly before the [Soccer] World Cup, the Zuma government continues to stall on the release of the changes."
Ollis said he would submit follow-up questions to each minister to request additional details concerning their and their deputies's car hire spending, such as why greater use was not made of vehicles from the government fleet.
In addition, he would write to Zuma to ask for an explanation for the delay in releasing the amendments to the ministerial handbook, and to determine when these amendments would be made public.
