Johannesburg - The Gauteng Department of Health has awarded an R87 million tender to a payment management company to take over the delay-ridden payments of more than 9 000 community health workers in the province.
On Monday, the department’s spokesman, Steve Mabona, confirmed that the tender, worth R87 099 481, to SmartPurse Solutions Pty Ltd, was over three years. The company would, among others, procure and install biometric devices at health facilities, develop community health worker monitoring software, validate and verify workers and remove ghost workers, and pay stipends to workers.
The company is also - as per tender agreement - tasked with establishing and managing a call centre for all community worker queries and providing IT support for all healthcare facilities.
Since 2011, the department has grappled with problems regarding non-payment of stipends, with workers staging repeated marches to their head office in protest.
In November last year, 70 community healthcare workers at the Chiawelo Community Health Centre in Soweto complained of going for three months without pay, saying they were promised R3 500 a month.
The latest protest in January was to demand stipend increases, annual leave and permanent employment.
“This decision was taken after we encountered challenges in paying community health workers directly. These included the payment of ghost workers and workers who did not report to work,” Mabona stated.
The department has in its employ 9 181 community health workers, whose scope of work includes providing education, care and support services to individuals and households as well as HIV counselling and testing.
Their pay scales vary - a site co-ordinator earns R4 000 a month while lay counsellors, community health workers and peer educators earn R2 500.
SmartPurse Solutions said in response to questions by The Star: “We are currently busy with the initial stages of the project, which includes infrastructure set-up and systems customisation.”
“We will be focusing on the management of payments to about 9 000 workers to ensure that the correct amount is paid to the correct worker at the correct time.”
DA MPL Jack Bloom said it was a “large admin fee” for a service that could have been done in-house.
“I think more of the money will be going to the admin than the workers. But why is the payment of community workers more challenging than other workers? It just seems to be a large admin fee, and they’re basically saying they can’t do it themselves.”
Mabona said: “We always strive to ensure that all the community health workers receive their stipends on time. Issues related to the Chiawelo workers have been resolved.”
The Star