Parliamentary Committees waste public money by meeting in luxury hotels

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned that, despite a R143 million deficit in the Parliamentary budget, parliamentary committees (PCs) will be holding meetings and workshops at very luxury hotels rather than in Parliament, causing an estimated R120 516 in unnecessarily expenditure [See table below].

With the exception of one PC, the DA has ascertained that there are plans to lodge participating MPs overnight at these luxury hotels despite the fact that they all have accommodation available to them at the parliamentary village. This act would add an estimated R121 726 in expenditure, taking the gross up to an estimated R242 242 in wasteful spending. (In a few instances the relevant department is carrying the cost but the principle remains the same). [See table below].

After enquiring why the Home Affairs PC meeting was taking place on Robben Island, the committee secretary informed DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Juanita Terblanche, that there were no committee rooms available in Parliament on those days so an alternative venue had to be sought. This view is questionable due to the following reasons:

• The notice of parliamentary committee meetings released yesterday reveals that only five other committees meetings are scheduled to take place in Parliament today and eight meetings on Wednesday;
• Even if additional committee meetings have been scheduled that are not reflected on this notice, a previous notice reveals that a total of 22 committee meetings were able to take place during the morning of 17 June 2009 in Parliament, so the capacity is definitely available;
• Both the Portfolio Committees of Correctional Services and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will be holding their workshops in Parliament

The DA believes that these meetings are yet another example of frivolous expenditure by the ANC. Instead of tightening its belts, it has chosen to ignore the parliamentary deficit, falling revenues, and economic recession and hardship. It has chosen insensitivity and decadence before serious business and the constitutional obligations and duties of Parliament.

Because we take our oversight role extremely seriously, the DA will attend these PC meetings at these hotels over the next few weeks, even though it vehemently opposes such wastefulness. But the DA will follow through with the following action steps, to mitigate the wastefulness:

• The DA will request that transport be provided between these hotels and Parliament so MPs can go back to their parliamentary houses, instead of pointlessly lodging at luxury hotels.
• DA MPs will raise our concerns at the meetings that have already been scheduled and will ask the committee chairpersons at these meetings what the reasons were for holding the meetings outside Parliament;

Lastly, the DA is certain that these eight committees are not the only ones that have workshops at hotels planned. The DA will therefore be writing to the House Chairperson of Committees, Mr Oped Bapela, to raise concerns and to request that he urgently intervene in this matter in order to ensure that these committee meetings are moved back to Parliament and do not take place at luxury hotels.

Table of Wasteful Expenditure by PCs

After contacting these hotels to find out their conference and lodging rates the following table provides a breakdown of the estimated cost of these meetings/workshops (calculated on the basis of 17 portfolio committee members and five parliamentary staff attendees):

Statement issued by Mike Ellis, MP, Democratic Alliance deputy chief whip, August 4 2009

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