Message for the MTBPS: Stop wasting our hard-earned money

Message to Minister Tito Mboweni

A taxpayer’s proposal for the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS)

In preparing his budget speech for tomorrow, mr Tito Mboweni took to Twitter to invite South Africans to air their expectations:

“Let us do something unusual which will annoy the Establishment. If you were Minister of Finance, what would you announce on Wednesday this week. It is time for the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS). Over to you. Don’t tell the Establishment about this tweet!!” Tito Mboweni

The Minister cannot fix everything this time round; however, it will help if he reminds his colleagues that money does not grow on trees. Therefore, in the spirit of ‘annoying the establishment’, we enclose a paraphrased proposal – even a plea – from one of our members:

PLUG THE GUSHING MONEY LEAK

“The minister for SOEs, [Minister] Pravin Gordhan, [recently] said something to the effect that SOEs procure at 2 or 3 times the market price.”

THAT’S WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING. THIS IS THE ‘PETRI DISH’ WHERE UNDESERVING PARASITES WILL BE FOUND.

“We are a …… level 4 BEE and are thus largely excluded from directly supplying SOEs. However, the jobs very often still come to us to be done and we charge what we think is a fair price, that give[s] us some return on investment, and would sell at the same price to Eskom, Transnet, etc, directly.

The fact is that there seem to be some tender oligarchs who get the jobs and then farm them out to others. We have found cases where we do a job and the same job passes through another two or three sets of hands before it gets to the SOE. If they all add 25% onto the price, it turns out that Mr Gordhan is right: 1.25 x 1.25 x 1.25 = 1.95, or as close as it comes to double the price we would be happy with.

I would like to see the ‘powers that be’ to cut out all the “non-value adding” middlemen to the benefit of SOEs and the country”.

Minister Mboweni, simply by procuring the best material at the best price, will not only save the South African taxpayer billions of Rands, it will save many SOEs from bankruptcy.

Kind Regards