Gigaba’s cost-containment measures help, but still leave a big ‘budget hole’
National and provincial departments spent R22bn on items such as travel, catering, entertainment and advertising in 2016-17; the DA wants some austerity
National and provincial departments spent a combined R22bn on travel and subsistence, catering, entertainment, advertising, newspapers, publications, conferences and other related expenditure in the 2016-17 financial year, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has revealed. DA finance spokesman David Maynier said there was a now a huge "budget hole" which needed to be addressed by the imposition of austerity measures. In the period April to end-August 2017, the total amount spent on these items was R7.8bn to R3.8bn by national departments and R4.2bn for provincial departments. Expenditure on these items by national departments in 2016 was R11.5bn and R10.4bn for provincial departments. National departments spent R3bn on consultants last year and R5.4bn on travel and subsistence, while provincial departments spent R3bn and R3.9bn respectively. Gigaba gave the figures in a written reply to a parliamentary question by Maynier who wanted to probe whether Treasury’s cost-containment measures ha...
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