Pretoria - The DA in Gauteng wants Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi fired for allegedly failing to act on damning audit findings which exposed gross and irregular tender awards at the Tembisa Hospital.
The official opposition’s health spokesperson Jack Bloom made the call after he received written replies from Mokgethi confirming that an audit was conducted about non-compliance of supply chain management procedures and the findings were damning.
Mokgethi made these revelations in her written reply to questions from Bloom, who asked why the audit was done.
In her reply, she said: “This random audit was conducted per the chief financial officer’s request to ensure that compliance (on supply chain management and financial management) policies were adhered to and ultimately to advise on best practices to improve on financial management performance; also to ensure that value for money was achieved.”
She said that the audit started on August 17 last year and the team was withdrawn from the hospital on August 23, which was the date on which whistle-blower Babita Deokaran was murdered.
Deokaran, 53, was shot dead outside her home in Winchester Hills, south of Johannesburg, after returning from dropping off her daughter at school.
Deokaran was the chief director of financial accounting in the Gauteng Health Department and was at the forefront of fighting and exposing corruption in the department.
She was assisting with investigations into personal protective equipment tender scandals which rocked the department.
The mastermind behind Deokaran’s assassination has still not been captured, but six men were linked to her murder and they are due to appear again in the South Gauteng High Court in Joburg on October 6.
In her replies, Mokgethi admitted that the audit report found that controls were found to be ineffective in all of the areas investigated, and were given a high risk rating.
These included that there was no demand management section; the central supplier database wasn’t utilised as prescribed by National Treasury; request for quotations should not have been received by a supply chain management official; and Treasury regulations were not adhered to in acquisitions.
It also found irregular expenditure, budget overspending, and that payments were not made within 30 days.
Mokgethi also confirmed that not a single person was disciplined at Tembisa Hospital last year, despite a damning audit that found a complete lack of controls in the award of tenders.
She also said it was noted that a price check wasn’t done and could have resulted in additional findings.
Mokgethi further said that the report was shared with the hospital CEO and management and “the resultant action plan with progress made, challenges experienced with implementation and alternative actions to be taken was considered in entity exco meetings”.
Reacting to the replies, Bloom said: “I am astounded that no staff at the hospital were disciplined after this damning report, and there was no further investigation as requested by Babita Deokaran, who flagged hundreds of payments amounting to R850 million as ‘possibly fraudulent’.”
He said a forensic audit was only being done now after an investigation unearthed fishy companies, gross overcharging, and purchases of luxury armchairs and skinny jeans.
“If it wasn’t for diligent journalists, the CFO Lerato Madyo and hospital CEO Ashley Mthunzi would not have been suspended. There should surely have been a rigorous follow-up after this ‘random audit’ was done at the very time that Babita was murdered. This smacks of a cover-up at the highest levels,” he said.
Bloom added the Health MEC was politically accountable and should be fired immediately, saying her own role in this matter should also be investigated by the Special Investigating Unit.
While Bloom is calling for the axing of Mokgethi, her office came to her defence, saying the audit report was not a forensic report, but just a tool to allow the SIU to use in their investigations into malfeasance in the Health Department.
Gauteng Health head of communication Motalatale Modiba said the audit was just to ensure that officials adhered to supply chain management and financial management in the department.
Modiba also said it was to ensure effective controls of supply chain management and consequence management for those that undermined the prescripts of the Public Finance Management Act.
Pretoria News