DA slates R500 000 'party'
18/10/2005 18:07 - (SA)

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance called on Tuesday on Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi to explain the almost R500 000 spent on her department's budget party.

"This is a lot of money and it seems extravagant and excessive," said DA MP Karel Minnie.

The cost of the festivities was revealed after the DA asked government departments to declare how much they spent on parties to celebrate their budget vote debates at parliament.

Minnie said: "In most instances, the departments have been frugal and in some cases - such as with the labour and Finance fepartments - did not host a party at all. This is to be commended."

On the other end of the scale, he added, some departments seemed to have spent an excessive amount.

"By far the worst of these is the DPSA (department of public service and administration), which spent almost R500 000 on its function," he said.

Calling it "extravagant" and "excessive", Minnie said the department did not have that much to celebrate.

50% had standards

He said that apart from staff-shortage problems, the last report evaluating service standards within the national and provincial departments in accordance with the Batho Pele white paper on transforming public service delivery, found that of the 115 departments that responded, only 57 had service standards.

"Of these departments, only 35 had standards that complied with the concepts of quantity, quality and time, and just 20 departments had standards that specifically addressed redress or complaints," he said.

The department of safety and security was among the most frugal, spending only R19 750 on their bash.