70 ministers & deputies makes no sense - Mboweni wants to cut bloated cabinet

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni wants President Cyril Ramaphosa to consist of no more than 25 cabinet members as government scrambles to reign-in the burgeoning public sector wage bill, currently more than R500 billion a year.

Mboweni made the remarks at a press briefing he hosted in parliament ahead of the presentation of his maiden Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday.

Mboweni said if asked, he would advise Ramaphosa that it simply did not make no "financial and political sense" to have a cabinet of 35 ministers, with each one of them having a deputy while some even have two people deputising them.

"If he asked me about the size of the cabinet, I would say preferably not more than 25…probably 20 is more than ideal," said Mboweni.

"China is a big economy and I think they have about 25 ministers or something like that. We have no-economically, financially and politically understandable reason that you can have an executive that's up to 70 people…that's what I would say to him." Mboweni said the public sector wage bill was remained the "biggest cost pressure on the budget," accounting for 35% of consolidated government expenditure.

Mboweni said this year's civil service salary increases had would exceeded the budget by R30.2 billion in the next three years and he's called on government departments to be strict in their management of overtime payment, promotions and improvement of other conditions of service.

Mboweni's MTBPS shows that the national treasury has not set aside any money to finance public sector increase for 2019, which is likely to put him on collision course with public sector trade union.

"Over time, wages have crowded out other goods and services and capital investment, particularly in health, education and defence. In some cases, this has contributed to a build-up of unpaid invoices in provincial departments," said Mboweni in his speech.

"Around 85% of the increase in the wage bill is due to higher wages, rather than headcount increases."

Mboweni said ministers also needed to play their part in reducing the cost of running the state, saying they would have to reduce their office benefits.

Mboweni's remarks comes as Ramaphosa is currently considering the size and shape of government departments and ministries, which the President Announced his state of the nation  address in February.

A minister earns an average of annual salary of R2.4 million with their deputies earning R1.9 million while the ministerial handbook allows ministers to hire at least 10 staff members in the private office but this stipulations is often exceeded. 

"When we go those negotiations and so on, the ministers as well have to demonstrate that they are walking the talk. The numbers of advisors and so on that they accumulate around themselves, the staff compliments, one minister comes into office they change their staff.

"We have to demonstrate some restraint ourselves, the cars we drive for example. In the first government of national unity in 1994, we introduced what was called a six pack, a package of measures that we called belt-tightening. Maybe we also need that for members of the executive but that's the president's issue but we have to demonstrate something tangible was we demonstrate with public sector unions."

Mboweni's MTBPS also shows that, despite a weak economic environment with a dwindling tax revenue, government spending would continue to rise in the next three years.

The MTBPS documents tabled in parliament indicate that government would spend R5.9 billion in the next three years, with education, health care and social spending remaining the largest cost drivers.

This is according to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni who presented his maiden Medium Term Budget policy statement, which outlines spending priorities for the next three years.

Mboweni said R3.3 billion or just over 56% of the R5.9 trillion, would be allocated to education, health, the provision of water and electricity as well as social grants in the  three years ahead.

The increased public expenditure, couple with a declining revenue collection, will see government borrowing more to finance some of its policy priorities.

This means government's annual debt service costs will rise from R162 billion this year, to R221 billion by 2021.

He also said public infrastructure spending was projected to peak at a more than R855 billion in the  same period, with state-owned companies accounting for R370 billion.