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A series of parliamentary replies from the Minister of Correctional Services has revealed rampant wasteful expenditure in her department. Our correctional institutions are in crisis, with overcrowding at 143% and a 71% vacancy rate for psychologists and 34% for social workers. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) uncovered billions in DCS corruption and yet the Department has not renewed its contract with the SIU. The budget overrun was almost R500 million. Yet the deputy minister has bought a Porsche.

Copies of each reply are available upon request.

The Department's wasteful expenditure is detailed below:

Cars: Porsche & Lexus:

The Minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, in her reply revealed that she bought herself a brand new Lexus LS 460. The cost of the car is provided excluding VAT; however, including VAT, the Lexus cost R968 821.00. The Deputy Minister, Hlengiwe Mkhize, bought a 2009 Porsche Cayenne with park assistance and cruise control for R759 070. Together, they spent R1.73 million. This is yet another example of gross self-indulgence from the ANC administration, which has now spent R47.8 million on motor vehicles since April.

Travel expenses:

The Department spent R900 000 more on travel and accommodation between April and November this year, than in the entire financial year 08/09. The DCS has spent R1 258 625 on hotels and R5 124 763 on travel transport. Total expenditure on hotel accommodation, travel and restaurant expenses so far is R6.4 million, compared with R5.5 million spent by the Department in the whole of the 2008/09 financial year. The Department's priorities are all wrong. In response to a DA parliamentary question in September, the Minister stated that the Department had implemented some cost-cutting measures, such as limiting the amount of documents that can be printed in colour and limiting landline telephones to R300/ month, which is a joke in comparison to her own wasteful expenditure.

Ex-officials living in departmental accommodation:

20 former officials from the DCS who resigned or who have been dismissed are still occupying departmental accommodation. One former official from Johannesburg has been occupying departmental accommodation for the last 3 years (since November 2006) and another's children have occupied accommodation for almost 2 years. That particular official the department claim they cannot track down. How much this has cost the taxpayer is unknown, but I will be posing further questions to establish at what cost these 20 ex-officials are still staying in Departmental accommodation.

Union events:

The Minister replied that no actions will be taken against the acting Regional Commissioner responsible for Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West for providing transport for officials attending a union event. Departmental motor transport is "provided strictly for official purposes", however the Minister has stated that, "the Department has taken steps to improve relations with labour unions as a result of which the departmental members are assisted with transport to attend the departmental events". Public money cannot be used to fund union activity and the Regional Commissioner is in breach of this principle. The Regional Commissioner does not properly understand the strict protocol which requires public money to be used in the public's interest, and apparently, neither does the Minister.

The Minister scored a dismal 4 today in the DA's cabinet scorecard. Had we received these replies earlier, she would have probably have scored lower.