Foreign Affairs spends more than planned - - 16 March 2000
A weaker rand has resulted in the Foreign Affairs Department
spending R80 million more than originally planned, it emerged in a report by
the auditor-general in Parliament yesterday.
But Foreign Affairs and the Department of State Expenditure could not agree
in the standing committee on public accounts yesterday on the actual figure;
and whether the money has been budgeted for.
Mr. Tom Moir, the department’s chief director: finance and logistics,
maintained that the actual figure was about R215 million, while State
Expenditure insisted it was R80 million and had already been taken into account
when budgeting for inflation.
Committee chairman Dr Gavin Wood appealed to the two parties to work out the
actual amounts.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Government spent about R900 million in
the 1998-1999 financial year on 92 embassies around the world.
Although the department had reduced the number of its embassies, it had
still spent 20 percent of its budget on only 10 percent of the missions - those
based in Europe and the United States. It had also spent more on missions in
the 1998-1999 financial year than in the 1997-1998 year (R782 million).
In the 1998-1999 financial year, it had six missions in the US - Washington
(R36,2 million), New York (R24 million), Chicago (R9 million), New York-United
Nations (R18,8 million) and Beverly Hills (R10,24 million).
In London, the Government spent R50 million on its mission - the highest
single amount.
The next highest amount was R26,4 million on the mission in Paris. South
Africa also has two other offices in France.
The taxpayer also has to pay R20 million for a mission in Vienna; R24
million for the Russian embassy, about R35 million for two missions in
Switzerland; R19 million for the Japanese office; R20 million for two in Italy;
R30 million for two in Brussels and R15 million for one in Israel, among
others.