New report reveals $19M spent to send Obama to Mandela’s funeral

February 7, 2014 by Janeen Capizola 2 Comments

Photo Source: Washington Post

A new report from The Weekly Standard revealed that it cost a whopping $19 million to send President Obama over to Africa in December to whoop it up during Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
Original estimates from December said the trip to South Africa cost $11 million, but new documents “recently released by the government show that the value of hotels and local transportation contracts for the U.S. delegation” actually cost $19,011,478, the article reported.
According to The Weekly Standard:

The transportation contracts include passenger vehicles, SUVs, vans, buses, pickup trucks, box trucks, and “larger capacity vehicles,” but do not include the cost of travelling from the U.S. to South Africa and back.  The combined total estimated cost of the two contracts is $12,521,851.
The five hotel contracts estimated a total of 10,275 “lodging room nights” spanning December 6, 2013 to January 20, 2014.
The total estimated cost of the remaining contracts is $6,489,627.  Adding the $12.5 million in transportation contracts brings the grand total for lodging and local transportation to $19,011,478.
The paper asked the State Department for clarification of why 6-weeks worth of hotel rooms were booked.

Read the department’s response here from The Weekly Standard.
Related: Obama’s $11 million trip to the Mandela funeral – that’s an expensive