The South African Nursing Council (SANC) is in disarray, according to its deputy registrar, the Star reported on Monday. The SANC is the watchdog of about 200 000 nurses.
A KPMG audit report, completed in March last year, found that the council — tasked with regulating the profession in order to protect the public — was susceptible to widespread fraud, theft and misappropriation of funds, administrative discrepancies and non-compliance with accounting principles, tax laws and its own policies.
The report found senior staff members approved salary increases without proper authorisation and that there were many administrative ”risks” that could have led to fraud, corruption and theft of council assets.
The SANC deputy registrar for corporate affairs, Herman Dikobe, joined the council in August. He has placed the blame for the council’s problems squarely on the shoulders of former registrar Hasina Subedar and senior council members.
Neither Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang nor Director General of Health Thami Mseleku have seen the ”damning” report.
According to Dikobe, the department has not received audit reports from the council in the past three years.
Subedar, a former nurse, was appointed by Tshabalala-Msimang in 2000. As administrative and financial head she has been accused of being ”inactive” in preventing the ”calamitous” state of the SANC. Her contract ended in March but she lodged a case of unfair dismissal with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, demanding an extension to her R350 000-a-year contract.
The Department of Health recommended that her contract be extended.
Subedar has hit back, saying some council members were conniving against her. Because the council failed to implement a performance agreement according to her contract, it had no basis for not renewing her contract.
”Throughout my tenure as registrar, the council never formally delegated duties to me. Whenever the council delegated responsibilities, they would be taken away from me immediately,” she said.
In a letter to Mseleku, council members have called on the ministry not to extend Subedar’s contract because, they claim, she also failed to delegate duties to senior managers and did not implement council resolutions.
A total of 123 ”concerned” council employees and most council members have signed a circular indicating that they have no confidence in Subedar.
The Department of Health has failed to respond to questions from the Star‘s sister newspaper, the Pretoria News, on the state of the nursing council and Subedar’s contract. — Sapa