R18 000 SPENT ON MEC'S SPEECH

Gauteng MEC for Education Barbara Creecy hired an external consultant at a cost of R18 081 to write her budget speech for the 2008/9 financial year when she was MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation.

This information was revealed in a reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

It is outrageous that so much was spent on a speech that should have been written by the department's own officials.

How is it possible that senior officials in the department and the MEC were incapable of producing a speech without this massive added cost to the taxpayer?

Surely this suggests that under her tenure the MEC did not know what was going on within her own department's finances.

The DA hopes that MEC Creecy is not similarly uncertain of the programme of action for her current portfolio, the Gauteng Department of Education, and that the finances of the department are being used to provide education to all and not to buy speeches or pay expensive consultants for other functions that should be performed by the department.

The DA will probe this matter and will be asking further questions regarding unnecessary spending.

Statement issued by Solly Nkhi, DA Gauteng MPL, April 20 2011

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