Govt bodies spent over R18m on reports: DA

The DA alleges that the ANC has sent out letters to all municipalities requesting donations

National government departments, parastatals and entities such as the Legal Aid Board spent at least R18 million, and possibly as much as R30 million, on producing their last round of annual reports, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said.

The "dramatic overspending" on a number of individual reports was the result of a combination of lavishness, ministerial vanity and failure to capitalise on competitive quotes, said Douglas Gibson, the DA's chief whip in the National Assembly. "The executive has a constitutional duty to report to parliament, but over-the-top spending on glamorous glossy brochures, such as a number of the reports produced last year, is simply a waste of taxpayers' money," he said.

Presenting figures gleaned from answers to a series of DA parliamentary questions, he said parastatal Eskom, which spent R4.6 million producing 8 950 reports that cost R518 each, was the worst offender. It contained photographs of "all and sundry", including one of President Thabo Mbeki addressing an audience.

At the other end of the scale was the department of defence, which had managed to produce a substantial 248-page report, with graphs and photographs of the minister, deputy and head of the defence force, for a unit cost of only R34.

Gibson said the DA had asked for an independent quote for producing an attractive, colourful, good quality report of the same length of the Eskom document, and was quoted only R36. He said the DA, which had replies from only 15 of the 28 ministries in government, estimated that if all departments and entities were accounted for, the total sum could easily be over R30 million. - Sapa