LETTER: Legacy of wasteful expenditure

The announcement by KwaZulu-Natal finance MEC Francois Rodgers that wasteful expenditure in terms of vehicle fleets allocated to MECs will be brought to an immediate halt is welcome.

The announcement comes after a Treasury report on vehicle hire costs for KwaZulu-Natal’s MECs revealed that R16.8m was spent by 11 provincial government departments over a period of just four months.

Meanwhile, two recent parliamentary replies to questions posed by the DA to all KwaZulu-Natal government departments has revealed that two Mercedes-Benz SUVs were costing provincial taxpayers an eye-watering R300,000 a month to hire. It is clear that Rodgers has inherited a shocking legacy of wasteful expenditure.

The DA believes the information contained in the replies is merely scratching the surface, with more excessive expenditure to be revealed as the remaining parliamentary replies are received. The bottom line is that runaway expenditure must be reversed and KwaZulu-Natal must cut its suit according to its cloth. If this does not happen there will soon be no money left to waste.

The DA welcomes Rodgers’ commitment to exploring alternatives when it comes to vehicle hire for MECs, which could reduce expenditure by about R20m a year. Prudent and frugal expenditure are the only way to strengthen the province’s finances and provide the launch pad needed to exploit opportunities when the economy hopefully improves in the long term.

Tim Brauteseth, MPL
DA KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson on finance 

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