Polokwane – The North West MEC for Health Dr Magome Masike said that his department had successfully cleared R751 million in accruals that were reported in the last financial year.
Masike delivered the news during his department’s Budget Vote and Policy speech, and said that this clearance was “made possible by among others, transaction accuracy systems introduced in the department and the co-management interventions with the Provincial Treasury”.
Masike said that the department had also “implemented enhanced financial accounting procedures in a bid to avoid the reoccurrence of accruals in the future”.
The R751 million accrual, he said, came from the department’s budget deficit that had accumulated over the past few financial years. The deficit he noted, grew from R50 million in the 2000/01 financial year and increased each year when the department’s budget was not sufficient to meet services.
Masike said that with the legislature’s approval of a R9,460,530 billion budget for the department for the 2016/17 financial year, “the department is now in a position to do better with the allocated budget now that the accruals, which have been a thorn in the flesh of health service delivery, have been cleared”.
Masike said be believed his department’s success in clearing the accruals was due to the implementation of a “turnaround strategy and a cost-saving exercise which included a number of initiatives”. One of these initiatives included implementing measures that would “prevent unauthorised expenditure and a 30-day after invoice payment system”.
High rental costs were reduced by sharing office space, and he said that the health department for the Ngaka Modiri Molema District was now sharing space with the Provincial Office in the new Office Park, and the department had “created office space in some of our health facilities to accommodate more staff and save on rentals”.
The department, he pointed out, was also looking into offices that were currently occupied by the Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital and would continue to look into further cost-saving measures.
African News Agency