Johannesburg - The Gauteng Provincial Government is to appoint an administrator to assist the Department of Health put in place systems and build its capacity for efficient, effective and transparent financial management.
Addressing journalists in Johannesburg on Monday, Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said: "To intensify our efforts in building the health system in the province through the health turnaround strategy, we have invoked Section 18 of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act] to assist the department to achieve its mandate and to comply with the PFMA."
According to Gauteng Provincial Government, an administrator will be appointed before the end of this month to work with the incoming Head of Department and technical teams which will focus on priority areas such as health logistics, hospital management, human resources, financial management and reputation management.
Mokonyane said there was also a drive to recruit high-level expertise to support the department in intensifying the implementation of the strategy inline with the need to create institutional capacity for management and leadership as agreed with national government.
"Immediate attention will be paid to fast-tracking outstanding payments to service providers with the priority being given to small, medium and macro enterprises (SMMEs) and cooperatives," she said.
The government was also intensifying efforts to curb personnel spending. However, Mokonyane noted that this would not be at the expense of the filling of critical posts.
"We are engaging with national government on addressing the shortage of specialist nurses and on the overall management of the four central hospitals.
"We will curb runway overtime spending and force people to work within the stipulated hours," the Premier said, adding that this included senior management and administrators.
In addition, government was re-engineering the medical supply depot, including a review of the business model.
"This is a ten month project that will realise savings through managing off-contract spend, procurement and excess stock and will also improve efficiencies with warehousing and distribution," said Mokonyane.
To this end, the department have improved the levels of supply of drugs on the essential drugs list and will ensure that supplies levels are maintained throughout the festive season.
Mokonyane further announced that from now on the payment of utilities accounts and transfers including municipal accounts would be centralised.
