The Gauteng Health Department has come under fire from the DA for its failure to spend more than R1 billion of its budget over the past financial year.
According to Democratic Alliance health spokesperson, MPL Jack Bloom, the department failed to spend R1.1 billion of its total budget of R58.8 billion in its 2020/21 financial year, from April 1, 2020 to March 31 this year.
The information was disclosed in the department’s recently tabled 2020/2021 annual report.
Bloom said this was a massive amount of money that should have been used to help hospitals overwhelmed at the time by Covid-19 cases, when lives were lost that could have been saved with more staff and equipment.
“District Health Services had an underspend of R407 million, and Central Hospital Services failed to spend R359 million. Despite crumbling hospitals and a dire need for more beds, the health facilities programme underspent by R201 million,” he said.
According to the department, a major cause of the underspending was delays in the filling of vacant posts, as well as infrastructure project commitments that were not paid at the year end.
Meanwhile, there are 7 000 vacancies in critical occupation posts, including a shortage of 2 550 professional nurses and 1 350 student nurses, 900 vacant posts for emergency care practitioners and 450 empty posts for doctors. Overall, about one in seven critical posts (14%) are vacant.
Bloom said another failure was R223 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure as a result of overcharging for personal protective equipment (PPE).
“This shows that poor management continues to plague the department, despite many promises by premier David Makhura that this would be rectified.
“Too many senior posts in this department have acting personnel, including the head of department and chief financial officer for more than a year. These posts need to be filled urgently with capable and honest people who will ensure that money is properly spent on care for sick people,” said Bloom.
“Senior health official Babita Deokaran was murdered because she exposed corruption in this department. The time for empty promises is over – the deep rot must be eradicated once and for all.”
Last month, the department reported that it had spent more than R2 billion on hospital security contracts that expired five years ago.
In a written reply to the Gauteng legislature, MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi said the original two-year contracts were meant to expire in September 2016. However, “due to the critical nature of the services, there was a need for extension of contracts, therefore the service rendered needs to be paid”, read her response to a question about the legal basis for the payment of these contracts.
To date, the department has paid 59 security companies R2.6 billion for contracts, to guard public hospitals, that were supposed to expire five years ago, but have been “irregularly extended” every month.
Mokgethi said that in 2016, the department advertised for new security contracts, but the tender was subsequently cancelled.
She said another tender was advertised in September last year, but “due to the high volume of the responses, as well as the various phases of the evaluation process, it is at the final stage”.
When asked what disciplinary measures have been taken, or criminal charges laid, in connection with the irregular awarding of these security contracts, Mokgethi responded: “None.”