Cape Town - Government departments spent nearly R5 billion of their budgets on entertainment, catering and travel over the past financial year.
The DA said it would write to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to ask that he issue a notice to all government departments to put a stop to “spending on luxuries” after it emerged the government spent R4.67bn on entertainment, catering and travel the past financial year.
The five biggest-spending departments in terms of these three expense items were the Department of Defence and Military Veterans at R780 million, the Ministry of Police at R685m, Justice and Constitutional Development at R454m, International Relations and Co-operation at R392m, and Correctional Services at R301m.
The Department of Defence spent R10.6m on entertainment, more than the Department of International Relations, whose entertainment costs include those of more than 180 embassies and consulates.
Defence also spent R733.1m on travel and subsistence. Defence and police topped the bill on catering at R35.9m and R22.1m respectively.
The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, which has a relatively small budget of R143.1m, spent R4.5m on catering, R56 000 on entertainment and R18.8m on travel and subsistence.
“It is nothing short of obscene – particularly at a time when so many poor South Africans are struggling to put food on the table for their families,” said Dion George, DA representative on the standing committee on public accounts.
“It boggles the mind that so much money can be spent on luxuries for ministers and government officials when so many South Africans remain in poverty and our economy continues to nose-dive,” he said.
In the 2011/12 financial year, 34 national government departments had spent R194m on “catering” costs, R31.7m on entertainment and R4.4bn on travel and subsistence, he said.
Catering costs usually refer to food and beverage expenses for, among other things, departmental workshops, indabas, launches, training, year-end functions and the opening of Parliament.
“Entertainment” costs, on the other hand, are defined as “luncheon meetings held with colleagues, foreign delegations and/or other individuals” and the “purchase of dinner during authorised overtime” incurred by senior managers and ministers.
Travel costs include transport, accommodation, food and other expenses incurred by officials in the course of their duties.
George said President Jacob Zuma had called on the government to “kill that spirit of self” and “not live above your people, but live with them” in his State of the Nation Address in February.
“How then does he explain the obscene amounts of money his government spent on catering, entertainment and travel?” he asked.
Acting government spokeswoman Phumla Williams told the Cape Argus that she could not comment until she had gone through all the annual reports to determine whether the DA’s figures were correct.
“But right now, I cannot comment on this,” she said.
Political Bureau