GAUTENG HEALTH JOURNEY CLEAN AUDIT

GAUTENG HEALTH JOURNEY CLEAN AUDIT @KASIBCNEWS

SERVICE DELIVERY 

The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) is committed to ongoing reforms to strengthen governance, procurement processes and service delivery in its journey towards a clean audit outcome. 

These reforms continue to be be implemented in the current financial year  (2024/25) in order to address audit findings and improve operational efficiency within the GDoH. They include comprehensive improvements in procurement systems and processes, contract and asset management, with the main focus being on enhancing compliance, reducing irregular expenditure, and addressing service delivery concerns, particularly in critical areas such as medical and  mental health services and food supply at facilites.

While the GDoH has maintained an unqualified audit opinion with findings in the  2023/24 reporting cycle, it is important to contexualise the position of the Department in regard to the audit outcome and various announcements that have been made regarding its overall performance.

The overall audit outcomes highlight improvements on financial statements in  which the number of areas where adjustment was required has improved from 7 in 2019 to only 4 in the 2023/24 reporting cycle. These include Movable Tangible  Capital Assets, Assets Under Investigation, Contingent Liabilities and Accrued  Departmental Revenue. Considering that assets have been grouped together, this makes it only three areas. 

To ensure compliance in these areas, the Department is conducting asset verification across all its entities while also looking at ways to address system challenges such as reviewing of applicable policies and standard operating procedures.

In the case of contingent liabilities, the Department has made significant progress  which has seen a decrease in the rand value of the medico-legal claims from R18 billion to R13.2 billion (a reduction of approximately R4,8 billion) owing to various  interventions such as mediation, administrative archiving and public healthcare  defense. It is important to clarify that contingent liability does not constitute actual  payments of finalised cases but the amount that signify potential legal exposure based on submitted claims which are still to be verified.

It should be noted that the overall audit outcome for performance reporting  highlights an improvement on Health Facilities Management and identified material findings which were subsequently corrected by management leading to  an unqualified audit opinion. The material findings were as a result of non-adherence to the processes on how data should be collated and reported in the annual performance report. 

Amongst other key interventions that have been implemented in the GDoH’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) includes the introduction of compliance and  oversight where all procurement between R500,000 and R1 million is vetted by the Gauteng Provincial Treasury before any purchase orders are created. This  oversight ensures that all procurement actions are transparent and meet  regulatory and legal requirements.

The GDoH’s SCM Policy has also undergone a thorough review, resulting in the  introduction of stricter procedures to align with Treasury regulations. There has 

also been the introduction of Quotation Adjudication Committees across all  health institutions to review procurement activities between R2 001 and R1 million to ensure no procedural missteps. This is vital in preventing irregular expenditures and ensuring compliance across all institutions.

To address contract management, several important contracts have been finalised, addressing longstanding challenges with extended contract  management, which previously led to irregular expenditures. Key contracts  include for services including physical security, waste removal, radiation oncology services, food supply, mental health services, and medical equipment.