ANC loots electricity for its birthday celebrations – mayor of Kgatelopele must pay up
| by Dr Isak Fritz, MPL – Constituency head of the DA for Namaqualand |
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| Date: 01 November 2019 |
| Release: Immediate |
| The Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape (DA) will demand answers from the MEC for Health, Mase Manopole, about the ongoing delays in the completion of the long-awaited Community Health Centre in Port Nolloth.This comes after my recent oversight visit to the site in October 2019 revealed that work has been at a complete standstill for the past two months, because the contractor’s invoices are not being processed and the Northern Cape Department of Health is not making the necessary payments.The accompanying pictures, taken in October 2019, shows that little progress has been made since our last visits in October 2018. The facility shows promise, but is not yet ready for opening.See photos here, here and here.We will also escalate the matter to our representative in the National Council of Provinces to ask questions on behalf of the people of Namaqua, whose health is placed at risk by this sickening failure in service delivery.It is not the first time that work has stopped because the department is either too indifferent, too insolvent, or just too plain incompetent to process the invoices submitted by the contractor. Without these processes, the Independent Development Trust cannot pay the contractor and he cannot continue to construct the facility which can potentially deliver a much-needed service to people in need.In August 2018, work was suspended when the department’s outstanding debts for this R150 million centre reached nearly R20 million. At the time, Steven Jonkers as head of the department wrote that payment certificates to service providers were being delayed. After the mismanagement of departmental systems and the subsequent non-payment of service providers came to light, the department committed to having the facility opened by March 2019 at the latest.We are now in November, with approximately 15% of the work still incomplete.In fact, when the project commenced in April 2012, it was supposed to have been completed two years and four months later in August 2014. Seven years and seven months later, we see more delays than we see progress. These delays leads to a massive escalation in costs and overspending on the projected budget, which can in turn affect the department’s allocation in infrastructure grants from National Treasury. This would mean that, on top of ongoing baseline reductions, there would be even less funding available simply because the department does not do what it is legally obligated to do!In the meantime, the building is open to the same vandalism experienced at other public buildings which are left vacant and then stripped of all valuable items.While the department sits on its hands, health care services are severely strained and on the verge of collapse. Patients who could potentially have benefited from the Port Nolloth centre and its services are now referred to an already overburdened facility in Springbok. The health care system in Springbok is near to collapse and yet the department will rather twiddle its thumbs than deliver on its constitutional mandate.We cannot blame the contractor for a reluctance to pay for the project’s continuation out of his own pocket. After all, who can trust this department to settle their debts when medico-legal claims continue to rise and it had ended the previous financial year with an overdraft?While the full audit for the department for 2018/19 is still outstanding, the Auditor-General highlighted his PFMA 2018/19 roadshow in Kimberley yesterday that this department is in severe financial distress. Invoices at a value of R106 million were not paid on time, although R55 million could be paid for goods or services which had not been received and suppliers appointed in multi-million rand contracts without rendering the service.Perhaps the department is so used to not delivering services itself that it is not surprised when its own suppliers don’t deliver services! Nevertheless, the fact that it cannot manage proper payment and proper procurement processes is an alarming symptom of a department in collapse.Indeed, negligence in project management and laziness in planning has become so symptomatic in the department of Health that every one of their infrastructure projects seems to turn into another mental health hospital!This is further proof of the Auditor-General’s statement during the PFMA 2018/19 roadshow yesterday, where both the deputy AG and the premier emphasized in this presentation that no project has been completed within the budget and on time during the past ten years. This has an obvious adverse effect on the quality of basic services being delivered and being felt by our people.We will not allow this culture of mismanagement to continue festering in the department, as it robs people of a vital service. |
| Media Enquiries |
| Dr Isak Fritz, MPLConstituency head of the DA for Namaqualand083 395 2737 Tharina WhittakerResearcher071 251 5558 |
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