ICT infrastructure plan could take irregular spending to new heights
The government wants another giant, nationalised monopoly able to generate even more irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, writes Leon Louw
According to the auditor-general’s latest report, there was R27bn in "irregular" spending last year. Oh, sorry, that was 2012-13. Last year, it was R25.7bn. Sorry again, that was 2014-15. What actually happened last year was that "irregular" spending rose by 80% to R46bn. That is the equivalent of nearly half a million RDP houses, enough in three years to give all shack dwellers houses. It would fund, roughly, 460,000 extra police, R6,000 per student more than the average tuition fee for all students, and 185 Nkandlas. Relax, we are a very rich country. We can afford it and much more. That is why the government wants another giant, nationalised monopoly capable of generating fabulously increased levels of "irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure". To boost our national pride, the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) published a White Paper which proposes the nationalisation of private telecommunications infrastructure and the creation of a spendthrift "d...
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