The Department recorded an expenditure of R4.137 billion or 52.4 per cent of the adjusted appropriation of R7.891 billion at the end of September 2012. The expenditure performance of 52.4 per cent was slightly higher as a result of the downward adjustment. The Department had exhausted the budget for Programme 5 (Auxiliary and Associated Services) due to expenditure on state funerals. The Department indicated that the original allocation for state funerals was R15 million and thus far had spent R29 million due to the ad hoc nature of requests for funding The Committee expressed concern at the over expenditure trends and advised the Department to allocate a contingency budget in future to accommodate any ad hoc requests that may emanate from Presidential functions such as State funerals.