MBOMBELA – The provincial government says it has taken the promised action against the officials in the health department found to have been responsible for its poor financial performance.
In his speech, tabling the province’s adjusted budget for 2014/15 to legislature on Tuesday of last week, finance MEC Mr Eric Kholwane, who was appointed as curator of the department’s finances in July, reiterated that there had been no working system in the department when he took over.
“The fundamental challenge in the Department of Health was the disregard for policies and legislative prescripts relating to systems and control, particularly in the financial and human resources management.”
The curatorship of the department was lifted three weeks ago. The provincial legislature has given its assurance that nobody who was found guilty of mismanagement would come off scot-free.
Kholwane said on Tuesday that action had been taken. The head of the department (HOD) at the time, Dr William Mapanga, two deputy directors general and the head of corporate services, are no longer with the department. He said the CFO had also been suspended pending investigation and he didn’t know what had become of previous HODs.
Health got a healthy cash injection with the adjustment. The net budget increased to R9 million (see graph), of which R35,2 million is to pay officials money owed to them.
Bushbuckridge Residents Association MPL Mr Cleopas Maunye welcomed the additional budget allocation to pay the health department’s staff for overtime, an issue which recently resulted in numerous strikes. Likewise an additional R100 million allocated for goods and services would help to address their other issues, Maunye said.
Another protest heeded by provincial government was that of the residents of Tekwane North for which R20 million had been allocated towards building a school in the area after learners were attacked earlier this year while walking long distances to school.
And since the function of environmental affairs was moved from the Department of Economic Development and Tourism only after the elections and start of the financial year, a total of R92,7 million was officially allocated to the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs for this function.
Yet, Dardlea’s existing budget was decreased by R16 million. Maunye said this was worrisome.
“It will compromise farmer support. We need to put more money into agriculture for economic development since Mpumalanga doesn’t have any other industries. Especially small farmers need help.”
Kholwane reiterated that accruals (unpaid accounts from previous years) were unacceptable since they impacted negatively on a department’s ability to deliver on its plans.
