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The Democratic Alliance said the Eastern Cape Government had racked up over R11 billion rand in non-core and wasteful expenditure over the past three financial years.
MPL, Retief Odendaal, on Tuesday released what he called “the Bhisho Billions Barometer”, an assessment of provincial government expenditure during the period under review.
“The Eastern Cape Government has squandered billions of rands over the past few years, which, had it been better spent, could have made a dramatic impact on the lives of the residents of this province,” he said.
Odendaal said despite lip service to cost containment and belt-tightening measures, a review of the past three financial years has revealed that non-core expenditure, of over R5.1bn, remains rampant. Wasteful expenditure, according to him, also accounted for more than R5.8bn.
He said included in the wasteful expenditure was the overtime cost paid to officials over the three years totalling R1.93bn, with last year’s overtime bill alone, costing R900m. Odendaal said three years ago the overtime bill was R231m.
“Travel and Subsistence of our Departmental officials came at a cost of R2.58bn over a three year period. This includes hotel accommodation amounting to R881m for only two of the three financial years," he said.
Odendaal said he made suggestions on how to reign in government expenditure to the Finance MEC, Mlungisi Mvoko, who will table a Covid19 Adjustments Budget in the Legislature on Thursday.
