GroundUp: How government officials spend public money on extravagant cars By GroundUp GroundUp_News
A Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs apparently wasn’t happy with the list of cars that Treasury negotiated bulk discounts on. So he asked Treasury for permission to purchase a Volvo XC90D4, at a cost of R1,118,352 to the public purse. The reason for the request was “National Treasury Transversal Contract RT57-2016/2017 does not cater for prefered [sic] vehicle”.
Despite this, some departments have requested deviations from normal supply chain processes, because the contract does not offer the cars some ministers and deputy ministers prefer as official vehicles. In June 2017, the Department of Transport requested a deviation of R984,990 to buy a Mercedes Benz for the Minister of Transport. The reason given was that the “vehicle is not available in the RT57 contract”. The Treasury provided conditional support for the deviation. The car was for Minister Joe Maswanganyi.
In a response to a request for comments, when asked how many of the cars for which deviations were requested are listed on the transversal contract, Treasury responded that only the Audi was. The measures applied not only to Cabinet, but also officials at all levels of government and state-owned enterprises.
But eight years later, the Ministerial Handbook remains unchanged, effectively allowing ministers to continue purchasing luxury vehicles and splurging out on other extravagances.
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