Government departments spent R11bn on consultants, contractors, legal costs and outsourced services in the last financial year.
|||Cape Town - Government departments spent R11 billion on consultants, contractors, legal costs and outsourced services in the last financial year, reflecting a growing reliance on outside help.
It was an increase of 6.5 percent, or R680 million, from the previous financial year.
Departments spent R425m on legal costs, R2.6bn on “business and advisory services”, R1.9bn on “agency and supported [or] outsourced services” and R5.6bn on contractors.
The figures emerged with the release of departments’ annual reports, which have been the subject of briefings in Parliament in recent weeks.
The biggest spenders on business and advisory services were the departments of Transport (R664m), Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (R268m), Defence and Military Veterans (R219m), Water Affairs (R166m) and Rural Affairs and Land Reform (R148m).
Of the R425m spent on legal costs, the Police Department topped the charts (R135m) followed by the Rural Affairs Department (R58m).
One factor cited in the use of consultants is the high vacancy rates in some departments. In the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, for example, the vacancy rate is 26.6 percent.
DA spokesman on public service and administration Kobus Marais said the figures were “evidence of the crippling effects of cadre deployment”, as well as the public sector’s inability to attract and retain skilled personnel.
He said the government had an average vacancy rate of 15 percent - or 19 950 positions - but this did not appear to correlate with savings on the salary bill. “Despite massive spending on consultants and R4.1bn spent on salaries for senior managers, national departments only reached, on average, 52 percent of their performance targets.”
He would write to Public Service Commission chairman Ben Mthembu to request an investigation.
He said during a presentation to Parliament last year that Mthembu had highlighted the “issue of consultants” as a major concern.
Mthembu had committed to “conducting comprehensive research into this matter”, he said.
Political Bureau