Treasury has wrested R25bn in extravagant expenditure from departmental, provincial and municipal budgets and re-allocated it to more worthwhile recipients.
This is the product of the work of a ministerial task team established to cut costs. The team found most of its savings in:
- The department of defence, where R4,5bn was saved due to the cancellation of the A400 military aircraft contract;
- Social development, where R1,2bn was reallocated after the take-up of social grants was slower than expected;
- International relations, where R1,5bn was saved due to, among others, the deferring of the building of the Pan African parliament;
- Correctional services, where the rescheduling of the building of prisons saved R4,8bn in this budget period; and
- Transport, where the rescheduling of infrastructure has deferred the spending of R3,4bn.
Other savings include the scrapping or decrease of spending on non- core goods and services.
However, the savings do not include what the public probably regards as the most extravagant: more than R40m spent on luxury cars for ministers and millions on parties to celebrate budget votes.
According to the DA, which launched a wasteful expenditure monitor last year, these cost taxpayers R660m.
However, ministerial perks are a matter outside the control of treasury. The ministerial handbook is being rewritten by the department of public service & administration.
Gordhan set the tone himself: the traditional dinner for treasury officials to celebrate the budget was unceremoniously scrapped this year.
