TREASURY PROBES MONEY SPENT ON WORLD CUP TICKETS

Early this year The Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, warned public officials to abide by the Monetary Policies. Not to overspend and most importantly they were warned against spending astronomical amounts on World Cup tickets.

This warning was not heeded and it has been reported that government expenditure on the World Cup has reached the amount of R140 Million, which treasury has dubbed bizarre. An investigation has been launched by Treasury to find out how much government departments spent on tickets and who the recipients of these tickets were.

The Minister of Finance has already given an indication in a Treasury directive that municipalities buying tickets was entirely irregular in Terms of the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act) and he emphasized that the same principle will apply to provincial and national government departments

Some are of the opinion that this spend is justified as the World Cup gave the country‘s economy a boost of approx 93 billion and created approx 66 000 construction and other general jobs. The spirit of the people of South Africa has also been revived and this some feel money cannot buy!