BHISHO – Last week at the Eastern Cape Legislature the budget for the Eastern Cape Department of Health was passed with a majority vote from the African National Congress(ANC) despite all the other opposition parties voting against it. The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape calls for an urgent review of the budget which has been pushed through with no consideration for the disasters it may cause to the residents of this province.
The budget is largely unfunded according to the Democratic Alliance, no solutions were provided to tackle the runaway accruals, money owed to service providers and suppliers from the previous financial year of which the debt owed sits at a staggering R4.76 billion amounting to 17% of the R28.14 billion departmental budget.
An amount of R2.63 billion which is 9% of the budget will be available for goods and services, that includes the supply of medicine and medical and surgical equipment to all Eastern Cape hospitals and clinics.
This amount however will not be enough to make it beyond July or mid August of which this is where it gets a bit more interesting. The Department will then have to once more negotiate for credit with suppliers and the EC Department of Health HOD, Rolene Wager said,”continue supplying the services for the sake of the lives of the patients”.
The question is, what will happen if the suppliers remember they are not running charity organisations?
The DA in their media release revealed quite a few interesting facts that really make this no longer an article about the Department of Health but a story about the disfunctionality of the EC provincial government as a whole.
Hundreds of millions have been poured into non core programmes like infrastructure and training which to knowledge the EC government has a Public Works sector that is responsible for the infrastructure of the province and it also has a Tertiary Education sector that can train new nurses.
Critical Medical vacancies remain vacant yet R19.2 billion,81%, of the budget goes into compensation of employees.
DA Shadow MEC for Health in the province, Jane Cowley MPL says,” It is clear that the department will not manage its debt to service providers unless there is an intervention from treasury. Accruals and payables are paid from the goods and services budget which leaves hospitals and clinics with dramatically reduced tools of trade.”
Medico-legal claims still threaten to bankrupt the department. The DA is advocating for a self-insurance fund to provide cover for medico-legal claims which meet the requirements set out in terms of Section 38(1)(b) of the public finance management act. This mechanism would prevent funds from being redirected away from the programs to pay claims.
This budget raises many concerns and with the elections coming up… is the ANC realising that they may not serve the next term and that they are just doing some last minute luting before being removed from power or is this just pure incompetence?
