Wasted government spending bemoaned
2013-03-18 13:27
Johannesburg - Wasteful government spending of R24.8bn
could have been used for numerous projects to the benefit of South Africans,
the SA Institute of Race Relations (Sairr) said on Monday.
"We have become so inured to seeing examples of
corruption and wasteful expenditure running into millions and billions of rand
that it is easy to forget quite how much money this really is and what could be
done with it," research manager Lucy Holborn said in a statement.
The Sairr was responding to a recent auditor general
report that found provincial departments and entities had incurred R24.8bn in
"unauthorised, irregular, wasteful, and fruitless expenditure".
The Sairr calculated that this money could have built
over 400 schools.
For the same amount it could have educated a fifth of the
total public school pupil population - 2.5 million pupils - for one year.
The sum could otherwise have been used to fund 1.2
million university students, more than the total number of students now
enrolled at universities.
The sum was also equivalent to 7.4 million child support
grants for one year, or 1.7 million old age pensions.
Based on the price of a newly built prison in Kimberley,
which cost R45m, the R24.8bn could have been used to build 550 new prisons.
The projected cost of the new Nelson Mandela Children's
Hospital being R1bn, the money could have built 24 children's hospitals, the Sairr
said.
Holborn said: "To put it in terms that some of our
politicians might better relate to, this money could pay the presidential
salary [at its current rate] for over 9 000 years; it could pay the annual cost
of catering for all national departments 125 times over; or it could build 120
Nkandlas."
- SAPA
