Contingency liabilities for Lim Health amount to R8 billion
The department also had 32 Scopa resolutions of which they have only fully implemented 11 and they have failed to report progress for the past four years
POLOKWANE – The Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, was seriously concerned about the increasing amount of contingency liabilities of the Department of Health, which stood at R8 billion for the 2017/18 financial year.
The Auditor-General in his audit report for the 2017/18 financial year issued in November 2018 said that claims (contingent liabilities) instituted against the department exceeded their next year’s budget (excluding compensation as well as transfers and subsidies) and that the department had committed more than 50% of the next three years’ budget (excluding compensation as well as transfers and subsidies).
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The department was requested to submit to the committee a comprehensive list of contingency liabilities and its plan to deal with it. In a statement issued by the Legislature, it is stated that a consequence management plan for doctors and other medical personnel who have been charged with medical negligence was also required, as Scopa noted that the department was marred by the lack of consequence management.
For the year under review no official was found guilty of misconduct. In their response the department indicated that the department’s financial status contributed to officials’ misconduct.
Some officials were allegedly served with letters of intention to be disciplined, but the committee felt that they were undermined by the department, since the letters attached as evidence did not bear signatures of the recipients.
This plan, as well as a plan to mitigate accruals, was expected to reach the committee by Friday, 18 October. On irregular expenditure, the department indicated a breakdown of 1 172 items dating back as far as the 2012/13 financial year up to 2017/18 which are all still under investigation to date.
The committee warned the department that if it does not have a plan to mitigate the problem, this will strain the provincial fiscus beyond its limits. Recently National Treasury instructed all departments both at national and provincial to cut their spending by five percent for the next financial year; to ease the pressure on the fiscus.
Scopa Chairperson, Goodman Mitileni has condemned the inability of the Department of Health to improve on their audit outcomes, saying it remains unchanged for three consecutive years with a qualified audit opinion.
The department also had 32 Scopa resolutions of which they have only fully implemented 11 and they have failed to report progress for the past four years.
The committee could not get sufficient responses from the department on plans they intend to put in place to strengthen internal controls. “Responses raise more questions of accruals, in which you claim the plan is working, but in 2018 it [accruals] increased,” said Mitileni.
