Question NW2623 to the Minister of Finance
14 September 2017 - NW2623
Maynier, Mr D to ask the Minister of Finance
(1)With reference to mandatory cost containment measures announced by the National Treasury, by what amount did expenditure on (a) consultants, (b) travel and subsistence, (c) catering and events, (d) entertainment, (e) advertising, (f) newspapers and advertising, (g) conference and (h) any other specified expenditure item(s) decrease in each department, constitutional institution and public entity listed in Schedules 2 and 3 of the Public Finance Management Act, Act 1 of 1999, as amended, in the 2016-17 financial year and since 1 April 2017; (2) What is the total amount of expenditure in each of the specified categories in each of the specified financial years?
Reply:
This reply provides additional information to supplement the information provided in the reply to the above question, dated 12 September 2017. The first reply focussed mainly on the preliminary outcome for 2016/17 and the first 5 months of the 2017/18 financial year. In the tables below data is provided from 2013/14, the base year for the introduction of the cost containment measures. Data for 2017/18 has been updated with the latest spending data as at 31 August 2017. Historical data has been extracted from the financial systems of government and might differ from the published financial statements of departments, as all data has been mapped to the 2017/18 version of the chart of accounts.
1. Total expenditure by national departments on items that relate to the mandatory cost containment measures decreased in nominal terms by R2.1 billion from 2013/14 to 2016/17, an average annual decrease of 5.4 per cent. This implies a real decline of R4.5 billion (in 2016 Rands) or a real average annual percentage decrease, after taking the effect of inflation into account, of 10.5 per cent. Table 1 below provides a consolidated summary of expenditure items related to the cost containment instruction note for national government. Details by national department is provided in the attached annexure A. The table provides actual expenditure for the 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years, (mapped to the 2017/18 version of the chart of accounts), as well as the preliminary outcome for 2016/17 and data for the first 5 months of 2017/18.
Table 1: Summary of expenditure on cost containment related items: National departments 1 see the link below:
http://pmg-assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/RNW2623Table1-170926.pdf
- Excludes Parliament
Total expenditure by provinces on items that relate to the mandatory cost containment measures increased in nominal terms by R182.2 million from 2013/14 to 2016/17, an average annual increase of 0.6 per cent. However, this implies a real decline of R1.7 billion (in 2016 Rands) or a real average annual percentage decrease, after taking the effect of inflation into account, of 4.8 per cent. Table 2 below provides a consolidated summary of expenditure items related to the cost containment instruction note for all provinces. Details by province is provided in the attached annexure B. The table below provides actual expenditure for the 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years, (mapped to the 2017/18 version of the chart of accounts), as well as the preliminary outcome for 2016/17 and data for the first 5 months of 2017/18.
As indicated in the previous response, expenditure information on these spending items is not available for constitutional institutions and public entities listed in Schedules 2 and 3 to the PFMA since these institutions utilise different entity controlled financial systems for their payments.
Table 2: Summary of expenditure on cost containment related items: All provinces see the link below:
http://pmg-assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/RNW2623Table2-170926.pdf
2. The total expenditure in relation to (a) consultants, (b) travel and subsistence (c) catering (d) entertainment (e) advertising (f) newspapers and publications (g) conferences and (h) other related expenditure for the 2016/2017 financial year amounts to R11.5 billion for national departments and R10.4 billion for provinces, as indicated in Tables 1 and 2 above. Corresponding expenditure from 1 April 2017 to 31 August 2017 amounts to R4.2 billion for national departments and R4.7 billion for provinces. Details of expenditure by national department is provided in annexure A and a summary of expenditure by province is provided in annexure B.
See the link for AnnexureA and B: http://pmg-assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/RNW2623Annexure_-170926.pdf