He did order 2nd helping

PAUL Mashatile has admitted that his spokesman lied when he denied claims made in an exposé by The Times on the Gauteng finance MEC's spectacularly extravagant dining habits.

The Times reported on December 3 that, after spending R96000 on a dinner party, Mashatile broke his own record and blew R108000 of public money at the five-star Auberge Michel restaurant.

Mashatile neglected to disclose this second amount to the provincial legislature when he was grilled about the scale of his spending.

He also did not declare government credit-card expenses of nearly R200000 for 2006.

Percy Mthimkhulu, Mashatile's spokesman, had earlier denied that his boss had spent R108000 at the Auberge Michel, in Sandton, on August 15 last year.

The Times reported that the huge bill was listed as "omitted expenses" in the report of an audit of Mashatile's spending on his government credit card.

But the MEC contradicted his spokesman yesterday and confirmed that he had been at the restaurant on August 15 - a mere two months after his R96000 bill there caused an uproar.

The Times yesterday caught up with Mashatile at the naming ceremony of the Gautrain's R230-million tunnel-boring machine.

When asked if he was at Auberge Michel on August 15 last year, Mashatile said: "We were probably there on that day. It was a function for the Gauteng Shared Services Centre."

Mashatile said: "My department has explained the omission to the auditors [of mention of the second visit to the restaurant] and Scopa [the legislature's standing committee on public accounts] is in possession of the details."

Mthimkhulu first denied to The Times that Mashatile spent the R96000 in June 2006 - though the MEC had already admitted it to the Gauteng legislature.

Then Mthimkhulu denied that Mashatile had returned to Auberge Michel and spent R108000 on August 15 that year. He claimed that it was "double reporting" of the same event.

Mthimkhulu then said the omission of this staggeringly high expense was an "innocent clerical error".

The audit report showed that Mashatile spent R266000 at the restaurant last year.