POLOKWANE – During the session, Treasury was congratulated as the only government department which obtained a clean audit report.
Read more: Limpopo pleased with two clean audits
Scopa Chairperson, Snowy Kennedy-Moneymoratho told Tooley that Scopa was contemplating requesting Legislature to have four departments placed under Section 18 intervention: Public Works, CoGHSTA, Health and Agriculture.
Read more: CoGHSTA lambasted by SCOPA for underspending and irregular expenditure
Tooley expressed concern over the Health Department, saying Treasury was aware of exorbitant overspending, and has been engaging with the Health Department since 2015, monitoring expenditure. The department’s accruals amount to R1,6 billion, he said.
Read more: Expert to get to the root of Dept of Health’s audit outcomes
“An assessment of the department has indicated that pharmaceuticals, at a spend of R2 billion since 2015/16, resulted in the most accruals. No doubt the leakage of money is happening at the depot. A lot of pharmaceuticals are going to the northern borders and we are keeping our neighbours very healthy.”
Despite employing 38 000 employees, there is still a shortage of skills and capacity in the Health Department, according to Tooley, “In 2010 there were 4 000 employees”.
It also came to light that in terms of Emergency Medical Services in the province, there are only 25 qualified personnel who could deal with accident victims.
He said last year, an additional R700 million was moved to Health, and yet again more money is needed.
“We will, based on assessments done at the end of January, decide which measure of intervention will be suited best.”
Regarding Education which is currently under Treasury’s watchful eye in terms of Section 18 (since April 2015), Tooley said there was little record keeping done since 2010 which has led to administrative headaches. An acting CFO from Treasury currently assists in this regard.
Commenting on the overall budget, Tooley said R48 billion of the provincial budget is spent on salaries, and that measures will have to be put in place to curb the growing number.
