A man for the turn-around: Rudolph Pahla
Many changes have take place since Rudolph Phala became MEC for treasury last year.
POLOKWANE – Many changes have take place since Rudolph Phala became MEC for treasury last year.
“The province is in a much better position and the financial position of the province has been turned around.” Phala said.
“A lot of systems are in place. Treasury’s oversight and monitoring function has improved, but much still has to be done. The process is not finished yet.”
According to Phala, the province has been turned around from being R2,7 billion in the red with a R1,7 billion overdraft to being in a much better position.
“At the time of the intervention service providers were paid twice a month, some more and some even before jobs were completed. Now systems are in place to check if proper contracts are in place and if service providers are paid once a month. Very few service providers have not been paid and investigations into companies are in process.
“The Limpopo Exco receives a report of invoices paid every 30 days and five departments are paying their bills 100% on time,” he explained.
” We can do things now that we were not able to do. We can send 110 students to Cuba to train as doctors and at the end of the year another 110.”
Phala said disciplinary hearings within departments are at various stages, because some officials are appealing their cases.
He said the province would not be able to obtain a clean audit this year. ” Even on national level they have not done very well. We will continue to strive to achieve a clean audit, even the office of the Auditor General has tightened regulations. At least now the province has hope of improving.”
According to Phala, his biggest headaches are the departments of health and education, the departments that also get the bulk of the province’s budget. “Both are huge departments, with a lot of personnel,” he said.
” We are working towards them not getting a disclaimer and have deployed a lot of resources to these departments.”
Phala said each department handled their own tenders. “The section 100 team said it would help to make some tenders more manageable if some tenders are centralised. No reports about the benefits have as yet been received. If reports are positive, we might take it forward and continue with centralised tenders for some aspects of procuring services.”
He said the section 100 team will be leaving soon.
“Cabinet has decided that they will leave by June 30. The chief administrator, Monde Tom will be in Pretoria on Wednesday (yesterday) talking with the ministers of the departments under administration about the modalities.”
A normal day in the life of this busy man consist of briefings at the beginning of the day, then meetings, meetings, and more meetings.
He said he liked to read or write in his spare time. He is a prolific writer and has published many articles on a variety of subjects. He is married, has four children and make time to exercise, despite his busy schedule.
A message for Limpopo?
” The new government is a reality. We will be on the forefront of fighting corruption and is committed to spend all of the budget and improve service delivery, not letting the money land in the hands of a few people that benefit from tenders.”
