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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has learned that at the South African Medical Association meeting in KwaZulu-Natal last month, it was revealed that the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has exhausted its R3.5 billion overdraft, and its request to ABSA for additional funding has resulted in a team from ABSA having to go to London to beg for a further credit extension. KwaZulu-Natal is not alone in this respect, as the Eastern Cape and Gauteng overdrafts have also neared the R2 billion mark.

These three provinces appear to be the worst, but all provinces bar the Western Cape are facing a severe financial crunch in the approach to the end of the financial year next month.

The DA is calling on the Minister of Health to come clean with South Africans and reveal the extent of the financial crisis within the Department of Health and to explain how this disastrous situation is going to be rectified.

In addition the DA would like to know whether Treasury is going to allocate additional money to health in order to pay these overdrafts off or whether provinces are expected to use money from their 2010/11 financial year and if so what additional steps are been taken to ensure province do not have to use overdraft facilities.

While the requirement to fund Occupation Specific Dispensations exacerbated the financial crisis in health care, this was in fact only the straw that broke the back of what is, for the most part, a shambolic and disgraceful administration of health care. 

The reason for this crisis lies in the crisis management which prevails in most provincial health departments.

Auditor-General's reports for most provincial health departments comprise long lists of reports on wasteful expenditure, expenditure that cannot be accounted for, assets which have vanished, debts which have not been paid, duplicate payments, lack of sufficient controls, staff who cannot be found, performance payments that cannot be justified, payment for goods and services which were not received, and on and on.

For the past five years in a row, the national health department has received qualified auditor-general's reports largely because it has not been able to obtain quarterly performance reports from many provinces.

There has been no accountability with regards to financial management.
eral's reports for most provincial health departments comprise long lists of reports on wasteful expenditure, expenditure that cannot be accounted for, assets which have vanished, debts which have not been paid, duplicate payments, lack of sufficient controls, staff who cannot be found, performance payments that cannot be justified, payment for goods and services which were not received, and on and on.

For the past five years in a row, the national health department has received qualified auditor-general's reports largely because it has not been able to obtain quarterly performance reports from many provinces.

There has been no accountability with regards to financial management.