The Gauteng Department of Health has become the first department to complete its vetting process.
On Wednesday, the department, which has been plagued by a spate of supply chain breaches that have seen some of its hospitals fingered in the awarding of irregular contracts, confirmed that it had successfully put through 1 593 of its senior managers and officials in supply chain management (SCM) and human resources management (HRM) through a detailed vetting process.
In June last year, former Gauteng premier David Makhura indicated that the province’s Ethics, Integrity Management Systems and Anti-Corruption Strategy Report had shown that as of March 2022, 88% of senior managers were in the process of being vetted or were still in the process.
Makhura added that Gauteng officials who frustrated the vetting process for members of the senior management service and supply chain management would be fired.
On Monday, the spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Health, Motalatale Modiba, confirmed to The Star that the department, which was identified by the premier as being the most critical department in terms of vetting, had completed the processes.
Modiba said that out of the 106 senior management service (SMS) officials, 104 had already submitted their documents for processing by the State Security Agency (SSA).
“Already nine of the SMS members have received their clearance certificates from SSA, while others are still awaiting the agency to finalise the process,” Modiba said.
Modiba added that two members who failed to comply with the process had already been issued with disciplinary processes.
When it came to human resources and supply chain management officials, Modiba said at least 1 487 SCM and HR officials had already submitted their completed forms to the agency for completion of the vetting process.
“The vetting process is a detailed exercise that is quite involved and requires officials to submit various documents and references,” Modiba said.
Speaking following the detailed process, Gauteng health MEC, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, said this process was an important step towards ensuring accountability and transparency within the department.
“The department continues to run internal awareness campaigns to promote the importance of vetting and annual disclosures that officials have to make. This has seen greater co-operation among staff in terms of the current vetting process,” the MEC said.