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The Democratic Alliance will be asking the Auditor-General to investigate fruitless and wasteful expenditure on PR firms hired by the Public Works Department to salvage the image of the beleaguered former Minister, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde.

In September 2011 the former Minister of Public Works, Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, paid more than R500 000 to Mpine M Consulting to provide “public relations” services and helping to “strengthen media expertise” within the department. An additional R320 000 was reportedly paid over a two-month period to public relations company Siyeluleka Consulting.

But a reply to a parliamentary question received today reveals that the Department has a fully-fledged Communications and Marketing Unit already. According to the reply:

• The unit employs 27 people;
• It is “one of the oldest, [most] stable and experienced Units in the Department”;
• The senior management in the Unit has “more than 60 years accumulative experience in the field, a fact itself pre-supposing depth, capacity and capability”.

So the question is: why did former Minister Mahlangu-Nkabinde spend over R800 000 on PR firms when she already had such expertise at her disposal? And why did the accounting officer of her department sign off on such expenditure?

When the Siyeluleka payments were made in September, the Public Works Chief Financial Officer, Cathy Motsitsi, indicated that “due process was not followed” in their appointment and there was no “proper terms of reference” for the work to be done. Yet the authorisation for this payment was signed by Mandla Mabuza, the Director-General at the time.

Clearly the expenditure in this department should be investigated by the Auditor-General. If the Department attempts to justify this expenditure, then we would like to know why a 27-strong unit of “experienced” communication and marketing specialists had to be assisted by outside PR consultants.