Gauteng health department told to deal with “month-to-month” contracts

Kwara Kekana, a spokesperson for the MEC, said “MEC Jacob Mamabolo has since directed the department to resolve the outstanding contracts and explore an option of insourcing services where possible”.

Kekana said that presently there were eight contracts that were due for renewal, and are currently under renewal on a month-to-month basis, whilst a process to re-advertise the tenders was underway.

She said this included tenders in waste management, security services and recovery of self-paying debtors and patient identification and verification contracts.

“Some of the contracts have been due for over four years. Extending these contracts on a month-to-month basis for such a long time is unacceptable.”

He said the management of the Gauteng health department had to resolve the situation “as a matter of urgency”.

He said currently the waste management department, security services, recovery of self-paying debtors, patient identification and verification were re-advertising the tender.

Meanwhile, the management of injury on duty claims contract was currently on a month-to-month basis, pending the finalisation of the participation to Free State government tender process.

Mamabolo reiterated the importance of finalising the process as soon as possible.

“The security contracts for our hospitals and clinics are critical in ensuring the safety of our patients and employees. The removal of medical waste is also of paramount importance; hence, the need to get certainty around these contracts.”