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The Minister of Public Service and Administration Lindiwe Sisulu must explain to parliament why her Department’s R19 million a year headquarters does not meet her exacting standards.

Minister Sisulu reportedly refuses to take an office in the Department’s headquarters at Batho Pele house in the Pretoria CBD and has not visited the building used by 600 departmental staff since her appointment to the Public Service Ministry two months ago. Departmental spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya is quoted as saying that the building is “derelict”, in the “wrong part of town” and “unsafe for ministerial staff”. The Minister reportedly now hosts departmental meetings at the nearby Colosseum Executive Suite Hotel.

In a reply to a DA parliamentary question received earlier this month, Minister Sisulu confirmed that the annual rental for the Department’s 14 000m2 premises is R19.19 million. The lease expired in November 2011, but the Department of Public Works is apparently negotiating an extension.

This situation raises a number of questions which I will be putting to the Minister in parliament:

• Why is her Department paying almost R1.6 million a month for a “derelict” building?
• How does she justify allowing 600 departmental staff to work in a building that she does not deem “safe”?
• Why are there negotiations under way to extend the lease for this building if it does not provide suitable office space?
• What is the financial impact of her decision to house her Ministry in an alternative building?
• How much is the department spending on conference venues at hotels for departmental meetings because the Minister refuses to enter her Department’s headquarters?

This Minister has a penchant for lavish spending. In the Department of Defence, she presided over a 300% increase in the cost of the Ministry. Over a five year period, she increased the cost of the Defence Ministry from R21 million to R65 million. She had a particularly extravagant year in 2010/2011, when the Ministry’s budget jumped to R97.3 million for the year. By contrast, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is able to run an efficient Ministry on R3.6 million (up from R2.4 million in 2008/2009).

The Batho Pele building was good enough for Minister Sisulu’s predecessors, including Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Richard Baloyi and the late Roy Padayachie. Public Service cannot foot the bill for special treatment for Minister Sisulu. She has to tell parliament why a building good enough for three previous Ministers and hundreds of public servants is not good enough for her.