Gauteng Health underspends R631 million

3 July 2019

The Gauteng Health Department underspent its 2018/19 budget by R631 407 000 despite massive backlogs and failure in providing health services.

This was revealed at yesterday’s meeting of the Gauteng Legislature Health Committee which considered the Department’s 4th Quarter Report for the January to March period this year.

The worst underspend was R823 million for district health services, which was explained as “due to delays in the release of payments.”

R504 million was unspent for machinery and equipment even though many hospitals have broken equipment.

Emergency services also failed to spend R153 million due to “delay in the filling of vacant posts and the release of payments to fleet services.”

The overall underspend was partly offset by overspending in other parts of the budget, which shows poor financial discipline.

Provincial and central hospitals overspent by R703 million, and R283 million in administration was overspent because of the payment of legal claims against the state.

New Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku needs to ensure that this year’s R50.8 billion budget is spent effectively to provide a quality health service.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 3 July 2019