Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Gauteng health department allegedly failed to spend R2.7 billion of its 2022/23 financial budget, according to DA health spokesperson Jack Bloom, but the department has yet to comment.
Bloom said this underspending was disclosed on Friday during a meeting of the Gauteng legislature’s health oversight committee.
For the 2022/2023 financial year, the department was allocated a budget of R59.4 billion and a further R178.2 billion over the 2022 medium term expenditure framework (MTEF).
Gauteng health portfolio committee chair, Dr Rebecca Digamela, told News24 that at the end of the fourth quarter, the provincial health department had spent about 95% of its budget.
Digamela said:
She said the provincial department had said some of the reasons for underspending were slow construction progress in terms of projects.
“The department said some contractors had abandoned their jobs, so payment could not be released. There is also the issue of students’ intake, which only happens at the beginning of the year, so quarters 2, 3 and 4 will show that the department had underspent its budget. There is also the issue about the payment of service providers within 30 days,” Digamela said.
She said they had advised the provincial department to have an annual budget for the training of students and also encouraged the department to continue paying its service providers on time.
However, Bloom said the provincial health department was being consistent in underspending.
“Last year, it was R2.6 billion, and this underspending is overwhelming to public healthcare. Hospital structures are crumbling, and there is no shortage of projects to spend money on. Most of the underspend was in health infrastructure, and R550 million was not spent despite the decrepit state of public hospitals,” Bloom said.
He said R1.6 billion was underspent in district health services, including HIV/Aids treatment and procurement of hospital machinery.
Bloom said:
“Although the department has applied for the money to be rolled over into the next financial year, it is likely more than R300 million will be returned to the provincial treasury,” Bloom said.
He said it was “disgraceful” that year after year, the department failed to spend its entire budget, which is needed to provide quality care to patients.
A media enquiry was sent to Gauteng health and will be added when received.
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