Andy Duffy
Special state investigations swallowed more than R40-million of taxpayers’ money in just 12 months, the government’s finance watchdog has found.
The figures, buried in the report the auditor general released to Parliament earlier this week, point to a sudden acceleration, in the 12 months to March 1997, in the government’s drive to call in experts to deal with problems judged beyond the bounds of its officials.
The expenditure, drawn from various departments’ budgets, stood at R23,5- million at the start of the financial year. It totalled R64,3-million by April 1997 – and was still rising.
The commissions and committees of inquiry are labelled temporary, though several predate the 1994 election. Many are still running.
Auditor General Henri Kluever makes no comment in the report about the expenditure. He notes only that the figures are based on information from various government departments, and ”show the identifiable expenditure, including salaries of officials on commissions and special departmental committees, other than those of a more permanent nature”.
The Department of Transport accounted for the single largest slice – R13,2-million in the financial year – with most of that going on transport minister Mac Maharaj’s national taxi task team inquiry. That initiative ran for nearly two years, ending in March 1997 with nearly R16,3-million spent.
The Department of Education also figured strongly. Its bill alone totalled more than R10-million for the 1996/97 financial year, including a R3,4-million tally for the 10-month probe into unrest at the University of Durban-Westville.
The White commission, which is probing illegal promotions among public servants before and after the 1994 elections, cost R2,36-million for the year, putting the total since it was set up in April 1995 at R4,7-million. The commission is expected to finish over the next two months.
Expenditure on the Masterbond commission ran to R742 000, bringing its total cost since its inception in May 1992 to R7,3- million. The report notes that the commission should complete its work by December this year.
Other big-ticket probes include the Ministry of Justice’s R1,5-million spent on a commission into the rationalisation of the provincial and local divisions of the high court. The cost brought total expenditure on the commission, which started in April 1995, to R2,4-million. It is still running.
The task group on government communications ordered by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki cost R1,8-million for its 10 months’ work.
The government has previously come under fire for expenditure on formalised, permanent commissions, such as the gender commission and the youth commission. The Democratic Party last year estimated that about R286-million had been spent on such institutions in three years, with no obvious returns.
Many of the special probes listed in Kluever’s report look easily justifiable. Few, for example, could quibble with the R2,75-million the Department of Minerals and Energy spent on the investigation into the Vaal Reefs mining disaster.
Other cases, however, are less obviously urgent. The Department of Minerals and Energy also spent close to R200 000 examining ”the existence of the diamond industry in South Africa”. That probe started in April 1996, and has no obvious cut-off date.
The Department of Agriculture decided to enter the notoriously labyrinthine wine and distillation industry in January 1997. It emerged just 10 days later, nearly R46 000 poorer.
Kluever’s report notes that the government’s unauthorised expenditure had risen to R183-million by the end of March 1997, from a previous R152-million – excluding the secret services’ budget of R831-million.
He rounded up the usual suspects: departments’ failure to comply with tender procedures, inadequate management and the perpetual headache from the legacy of the former homelands and independent states.
Generally scathing in tone, Kluever singles out the police for special mention. His report notes that the police’s unauthorised expenditure was close to R117-million – triggered by, among other elements, mass promotions.
Another R76,2-million set aside for Reconstruction and Development Programme projects had been spent on other causes. Beyond the unauthorised police expenditure, Kluever’s officials also found that police management had provided ”free services” to its staff in canteens and messes worth R33,6-million.
Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi says the lack of financial skills among police management prompted his appointment of businessman Meyer Kahn as police chief executive officer 12 months ago.
Mufamadi adds that most of the unauthorised expenditure is technicality- based. He says the R135-million cost of promoting 11 000 officers, in a redress scheme approved by Cabinet, was ruled unauthorised only because the Ministry of Finance had failed to approve the plan in time.