The government is tightening its belts and curbing unnecessary attendance of conferences within the country and outside, as well as international study tours and the excessive use of consultants.
The National Treasury has issued an instruction revising the government cost containment measures first issued in the 2017/18 financial year that comes into effect on September 1.
According to the instruction issued by Treasury director-general Dr Duncan Pieterse last month, public servants must make every effort to take advantage of early registration discounts by seeking the required approval to attend conferences timeously.
Accounting officers (directors-general and heads of departments) and accounting authority (ministers, premiers, MECs or board members) must, before approving attendance, consider as a minimum whether a conference is aligned with the performance agreement or personal development of an employee.
In addition, they must ensure that the conference will benefit an employee in the performance of his or her duties and that the objective of the event relates to one of the functions of the institution.
”When considering the approval of expenditure for the attendance of a conference, an accounting officer and accounting authority must consider as a minimum whether budgeted funds are available to meet expenditure related to the employee’s attendance of the conference,” reads the instruction.
For attendance of conferences hosted by professional bodies and other government or non-governmental organisations within the borders of South Africa, if approved by an accounting officer or authority in line with internal policy and the expenditure, must include conference registration costs, any other expenditure relating to the conference, as well as incidental costs.
However, the expenditure must exclude costs related to travel and accommodation and the accounting officer and authority must ensure that air travel and accommodation arrangements are in line with the institution’s internal travel policy.
Motivation to the accounting officer and authority to approve a rate higher than what is dictated by internal policy must, as a minimum, include the nature of the conference, targeted audience, total number of expected delegates, negotiated attendance costs per person, breakdown of conference expenditure and how the event furthers the mandate of the institution and how it will contribute to strategic partnerships with stakeholders.
The instruction also addresses the engagement of professional service providers or consultants, who must be appointed in accordance to procurement process subject to negotiations.
Treasury has indicated that an accounting officer or authority may appoint and manage consultants and consultancy projects by ensuring that they are only used if the required capacity, skills or expertise do not exist in the institution and value for money is achieved when making use of their services.
Consultants can earn up to about R3 400 an hour depending on experience and qualifications.
Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has previously flagged municipalities for their limited skills and capacity in finance, information technology and technical units responsible for infrastructure projects that have led to heavily reliance on consultants.
In the 2021/22 financial year, 220 municipalities spent R1.61 billion on consultants to help with financial reporting – an increase by almost a fifth from R1.36bn in 2020-21.
”More than half of these municipalities (53%) used financial reporting consultants to provide skills that their finance units did not have.
“Overall, 40% hired consultants for specific skills and to bridge a vacancy gap, while 7% used consultants purely to compensate for vacancies. Consultants were mostly used for asset management services (34%), tax services (29%), and the preparation or review of financial statements (26%),” Maluleke said last year.
She added that weaknesses in financial and project management practices in Limpopo government departments and entities negatively affected infrastructure projects, which had an impact on service delivery.
”The Public Works, Roads and Transport Department, which is responsible for procuring and monitoring construction work in the province, still did not have the internal capacity to oversee construction on projects, leading it to rely heavily on consultants,” she explained.
Maluleke said the failures in delivering, maintaining and safeguarding infrastructure are due to four matters that need urgent attention, including lack of accountability, where the terms of construction contracts are not used to hold the contractor and professional service providers (consultants and implementing agents) accountable when they do not perform.
The instruction also reinforces the government’s ban on paying for booze, and states that private phone calls, newspapers, alcoholic beverages, toiletries, movies, gratuity for porters or waiters, room service charges, among others, are for the traveller’s own personal account.
“No payments will be made for tips or gratuities for waiting staff included in the bills for meals, room service or tray service, consumable items taken from mini bars in an accommodation establishment, private travelling, internet connectivity for private purposes at accommodation establishments, airports and other public places and overweight and, or over-limit baggage expenses, unless it is due to official business purposes.”
Other non-reimbursable expenses include fees incurred to access the health club or fitness centres of accommodation establishments and any other expenses not directly related to official business.