NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 662
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 15 March 2010
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 7)
Mrs H Lamoela (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether any action has been taken by (a) his department and (b) the
provincial departments of health in respect of any predicted shortfall
in each province with regard to the health budget; if not, why not; if
so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether he has been informed of any action taken by (a) the National
Treasury and (b) provincial treasury departments in respect of any
predicted shortfall in each province with regard to the health budget;
if so, what are the relevant details in each case;
(3) whether there is any indication of the causes of any financial
difficulties in each province, including (a) unforeseen expenditure,
(b) unavoidable expenditure and (c) unfunded mandates; if so, (i) what
are the relevant details and (ii) what steps have been taken to
rectify the matter?
NW788E
REPLY:
(1) (a) and (b) Yes.
|Province |Interventions by both Department of Health and |
| |Provincial Health Department |
|Eastern Cape |Suspended the Human Resource Operating Project (HROPT) |
| |payments. Defer Human Resource accruals to next year. |
| |Belt-tightening measures/indicative expenditure limits |
| |and restoring fiscal discipline measures for adherence |
| |and implementation with immediate effect. |
|Free State |The Provincial Health implemented reprioritisation |
| |measures. Currently the Province has already |
| |reprioritised R106 367 000 of the current budget and is|
| |busy with the reprioritisation of other funds to |
| |address budget pressures in order to remain within the |
| |allocated 2009/10 budget. The Department has also |
| |implemented cost-containment measures to restrain |
| |expenditure. |
|Gauteng |The Department of Health and the Provincial Treasury |
| |engaged all health facilities in the reprioritisation |
| |of the budget process in an effort to identify savings |
| |and come up with cost containment measures to improve |
| |efficiencies. Some of the non-core-related services |
| |like the utilisation of consultants, catering services |
| |and car rentals were stopped; some savings were |
| |identified. |
| | |
| | |
| |The cash-flow management: |
| | |
| |the shortfall in the cash being made available in |
| |having a significant impact on services being delivered|
| |in the Province as a result of suppliers not delivering|
| |due to them not being paid; |
| | |
| |Provincial Treasury has introduced a system of ring |
| |fencing all salary-related funds before releasing any |
| |payments to the suppliers. |
|KwaZulu/Natal|Cost-saving measures were implemented by the Provincial|
| |Department of Health as well as Provincial Treasury, |
| |through the implementation of the Fiscal Adjustment |
| |Plan. |
|Limpopo |The Province will reprioritise and strengthen its |
| |cost-cutting measures to remain within the allocated |
| |budget in the 2009/10 financial year. |
|Mpumalanga |Implemented cost-curtailment where all financial |
| |delegations were withdrawn from programme managers and |
| |centralised at head office until the new financial year|
| |2010/11. |
| |The Provincial Health Department has closed budgets on |
| |the financial systems. Transactions will be rejected if|
| |funds are not available. This increases the monitoring |
| |and internal control. |
|Northern Cape|The Province has embarked on the following strategies: |
| | |
| |reducing expenditure on catering, travelling, etc; |
| | |
| |utilizing the savings generated from the delay in |
| |filling of posts to defray over-expenditure on goods |
| |and services. |
| | |
| |The Provincial Department of Health has also taken a |
| |decision to pay all outstanding amounts in the current |
| |financial year. |
|North West |The Provincial Department of Health has shifted funds |
| |from Administrative functions to fund Core Services. |
| |Cost-cutting measures have been strengthened and |
| |implemented to reduce the deficit and the Province has |
| |regular discussions with service providers to put |
| |certain projects on hold or defer payments to the next |
| |financial year. |
|Western Cape |The cost-saving measures consist of a number of |
| |initiatives, including: |
| | |
| |vetting and evaluating all requests for spending at |
| |institutional level; |
| |only the most critical posts are filled; |
| |project teams have been appointed to oversee high cost |
| |items e.g blood, NHLS; |
| |monthly budget meetings where trends and strategies are|
| |discussed are in place; |
| |currently the Provincial Health Department is not |
| |experiencing a shortage of funds. It is therefore not |
| |withholding payments; |
| |all accruals at the end of March have been paid. |
(2) (a) and (b) Yes, we have been informed by both National and
Provincial Treasuries, through Provincial Health MECs and
HODs.
Acting taken by National Treasury was to send out teams to
provinces to facilitate remedial action between Provincial
Treasuries and Provincial Health Departments. The details
are as per (1) above.
(3) The National Department is still awaiting detailed responses from the
Provinces. The consolidated response will be forwarded once received.
END.