The way the Eastern Cape provincial government spent its health budget has significantly contributed to the public health-care crisis in the province, a book launched on Saturday demonstrates.
The book, produced by the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), was launched during the People’s Health Summit in East London.
Key findings include:
- That more than 81% of the provincial health department’s R25,2-billion budget from 1996 to 2003 was not properly accounted for. This amount (R20,6-billion) was issued with audit disclaimers by the auditor general.
- That more than R283-million (19%) of the infrastructure budget between 1999 and 2004 was unspent. This money should have gone towards maintenance of hospitals, clinics and health centres in the province.
- That between 2000 and 2003 the department failed to spent 27% of its HIV/Aids budget (R33-million) — and of the spent funds, R90-million was unaccounted for.
The study was prompted by an increasing number of reports of health-care-related problems by politicians and the media, said PSAM spokesperson Adrienne Carlisle in a statement.
These included overcrowded hospital wards, the dilapidation of infrastructure, food shortages, broken-down ambulances and neglected state mortuaries.
There were also reports of ”serial underspending by the department”, she said.
Carlisle said the book is based largely on an evaluation of internal financial reporting documents, which the PSAM obtained from the provincial health department only after recourse to the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
The book is entitled The Crisis of Public Health Care in the Eastern Cape: The Post-Apartheid Challenges of Oversight and Accountability and Carlisle predicted it will be an ”invaluable tool for analysts, and those with an interest in the public health sphere”.
”It is hoped that it will also be of use to the health department itself and oversight bodies, such as the standing committee on health and the standing committee on public accounts,” she said.
The book was not commissioned by the department, said Carlisle, but a copy has been sent to Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela and the province’s minister of health, Monwabisi Bevan Goqwana.
The provincial minister was expected to respond to the findings on Sunday.
The PSAM is an independent monitoring and research organisation based at Rhodes University. It monitors the way government departments manage their resources, whether or not they provide effective service delivery, and the accountability of politicians and officials who run these departments. — Sapa