Concerns as Limpopo Health Department returns R71 million in conditional grant funding

LIMPOPO

The DA has written to the Limpopo health department’s MEC, Phophi Ramathuba, to provide reasons why the department was unable to spend its conditional grant funding, and what measures would be put in place to prevent this.
The department recently surrendered just over R70m in conditional grants despite already having rollovers amounting to R4.447b. According to the Limpopo DA, this seems to indicate ineffective expenditure management.
The funding surrendered was from the following grants: the comprehensive HIV/Aids grant (R45.5m), the human resources capacitation grant (R22.5m), the National Tertiary Service grant (R2.176m) and the National Health Insurance grant (R261 000).
“These conditional grants are transfers to provincial governments that can only be used for a specific predetermined purpose, and these surrendered amounts will have a tremendous impact on the delivery of health services in the province,” said the DA’s Risham Maharaj.
The party has also written to Premier Stan Mathabatha to provide details of consequence management steps that will be taken against the officials responsible for failing to spend this conditional grant funding.
“It is Mathabatha’s duty to monitor spending in his departments and ensure there is accountability for the under-expenditure of grants.”