Public works minister Thulas Nxesi has conceded that the government is spending an exorbitant amount on buying and maintaining houses for ministers, saying such a benefit "needs a radical review".

Nxesi made the concession in parliament on Tuesday after he and public works officials were grilled by public finance watchdog body Scopa over the R26.5-million spent on four houses for ministers in Pretoria and Johannesburg during the financial years of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 without tenders.

Nxesi and his team were also lambasted by MPs for spending R523000 on installing braai facilities at other ministerial homes in Cape Town, saying the expenditure was "immoral" and a "slap in the face" for the poor.

It also emerged during the heated meeting that the government had not put a cap on the amounts to be spent on houses for ministers even though there was a limit on other ministerial perks.

MPs argued that in the absence of such a measure, public works would not be able to control what it was spending on ministerial homes.

The legislators were not impressed when it came out that one of the houses in the affluent Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof ended up costing R9-million while the department had initially set aside R7-million.

"There was a question raised about the morality of spending a lot of these millions. Clearly, the issue of the limits and whatever goes to the ministers needs a radical review in terms of the ministerial handbook, but unfortunately that review cannot be done by the officials," said Nxesi. "It has to be done by the executive. and it's correct that you need to put numbers of things [in terms] of norms and standards. So that is a matter for consideration which I will have to submit to the presidency and the executive as a very strong recommendation."

Themba Godi, the Scopa chair, said such procurement policy gaps made it "inherent in this department to attract all sorts of characters who want to make a quick buck".

"The point I think my colleagues were raising, it's a mindset thing, of how we relate to power. Does it become a licence to just splurge in any way, it doesn't matter?

"One of your colleagues, a minister, actually said to me 'you guys are actually not being tough enough on us cause these ministerial houses are actually a waste, six bedrooms.' He said, 'I only use my bedroom, study, the kitchen and the sitting room', so the criteria that is used to say this is what ministers need, is a maximalist approach," said Godi.