The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes with concern today’s parliamentary reply from the Minister of Public Enterprises regarding his Ministry’s car hire bills. The Department of Public Enterprises spent R201 891 on car hire in the last year. For the seven ministries that have replied thus far, this brings the total amount of state funds spent over the last year by members of the executive on car hire to over R1.5 million. This is an unacceptably high figure and raises serious questions about how exactly the ministers concerned have generated such large car hire bills.

The DA is also troubled by the disdain for accountability shown by the majority of ministries, given that the vast majority have failed to reply to the DA’s question about car hire expenditure.

A copy of the Minister of Public Enterprises’ reply can be found here.

The replies received by the DA thus far seem to suggest that, in many cases, ministers are paying rental rates far above the market rate, for example:

The Minister of Public Enterprise hired a Volkswagen Touareg for one day at a cost of R13 328. The market-related daily rate for such a vehicle is R3 291.
The Minister of Arts and Culture hired a Mercedes Benz E-class for two days at a cost of R11 782 (therefore at a daily rate of R5 891), but the market-related rate is only R2 130.
The Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture hired a Volkswagen Touareg for two days at a cost of R17 517 (therefore at a daily rate of R8 758), but the market-related cost is only R3 291.

The DA has submitted follow-up questions to the relevant ministers requesting an explanation for discrepancies such as these. Ministers need to explain exactly why they have been willing to pay significantly more for care hire than was necessary. Furthermore, Ministers have already indicated that they are using VIP protection services at no additional cost, which means that the discrepancy is not as a result of hiring chauffeurs or additional security services. The DA will also be enquiring as to exactly which car hire companies have been used by the Ministers and why these companies have been used, seeing as their rates are so much higher than those of their competitors.

These parliamentary questions present an ideal opportunity for the Ministers concerned to explain this troubling state of affairs.

This situation points to larger problems plaguing the Zuma administration. These include an alarming disregard for parliament’s role of conducting oversight of the executive, reckless use of public funds and the failure of the ANC government to make public proposed amendments to the ministerial handbook. The DA calls on President Zuma to make these amendments (which Minister of Public Service and Administration, Richard Baloyi, stated would be released “certainly before the World Cup”) public as a matter or urgency to avoid continued wastage of state funds by members of his executive.