Johannesburg – The Gauteng Department of Health has in the past 10 years incurred R19 billion in irregular expenditure.
Spokesperson for the department, Kwara Kekana, confirmed the money was an accumulated amount as of the 2010/11 financial years to last year.
That amount, she said, also included the R3bn in irregular expenditure the department incurred in five months last year, from April to September.
The information on the latest amount was revealed by the department on Friday at the Gauteng Legislature.
Kekana said the R2.4bn of the R3bn of the irregular expenditure was attributed to Covid expenditure while the rest was attributed to consignment stock, security contracts and outsourced nursing staff.
The DA’s spokesperson for Health in Gauteng Jack Bloom said it was “tragic that the Gauteng Health Department is a habitual offender with poor financial management over many years”.
“There have been many failed promises to fix the finances in this department, and the continuing lack of financial controls is what enabled the massive PPE corruption.
“I hope that the latest horrendous corruption is the wake-up call for fundamental reform to ensure clean and effective spending.”
Last week, the Gauteng Department of Education disputed claims by the DA it had incurred irregular expenditure of R1bn in the 2019/20 financial year, saying the amount was R14 million.
The revelations came hot on the heels of news the department paid over 300 companies R431 million for the cleaning and decontamination of schools in three months.
IOL