a) The Department had a high vacancy rate in critical occupations, e.g. nurses (25.4%), pharmacists (44.4%), medical practitioners (20%), finance and economics related professionals (26.1%), financial & related posts (47%) and information technology (66.7%). b) Inadequate training of personnel. c) The Human Resource (HR) plan has not been updated with the projected information for the 2008-09 financial year. The HR plan provided only reflects projected information for the 2006- 07 financial year, resulting in the department not complying with chapter 1, part 3, paragraph D1(c), of the Public Service Regulations (PSR).