DA: National Departments spend R1.2billion on hotels, travelling and restaurants in 2007

By Marthe van der Wolf
25 September 2007

The Democratic Alliance has revealed an analysis of the amount of money that was spent by the national government on hotels, travel and restaurants. In all three categories, the amount spent has increased from last year.

"Of the 26 national departments, 19 have responded to the DA’s questions. Across all 19 departments, a total of R1.28billion was spent in 2006/2007. R362m was spent on accommodation, R827m on travelling and R90m on food," says MP Motlatjo Thetjeng.

This means that accommodation costs have increased by around 13% from 2005/2006. Travel costs have increased by around 26% and food costs by around 34%.

"The DA will be submitting parliamentary questions to those departments with significant increases in spending to determine the reasons for the changes," says Thetjeng.