 on Wednesday rejected claims that it had failed to spend R1.2 billion of its adjusted budget, saying its latest in-year monitoring for the 2025/26 financial year instead showed it was projecting an overspend. ){kind=link}
By Lebone Rodah Mosima
The Gauteng Depart of Health (GDoH) on Wednesday rejected claims that it had failed to spend R1.2 billion of its adjusted budget, saying its latest in-year monitoring for the 2025/26 financial year instead showed it was projecting an overspend.
The department said its Prescribed PFMA In-Year Monitoring (IYM) reports showed a projected overspend primarily linked to settling outstanding payments for medicines and medical supplies, increased demand for services across facilities, and escalating costs that exceeded the inflation assumptions used in the 2025/26 budget.
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“The Department wishes to place the facts on record to ensure accurate public understanding of the Department’s financial position and operational challenges,” it said.
“It is therefore misleading to conflate the Department’s current-year spending pressures with the underspending recorded in the 2024/25 financial year.”
The department said it had introduced corrective measures to stabilise financial management and improve compliance, including strengthened expenditure controls and tighter oversight of payment processes.
“It is also important to indicate that the Department has achieved 79% and 80% respectively in both quarter 2 and 3 on payments to service providers within 30 days,” GDoH said.
It said it remained committed to restoring financial discipline, strengthening accountability and prioritising healthcare delivery, infrastructure and staff support.
“We will also continue to engage constructively with oversight bodies and stakeholders to address systemic issues and to ensure that public health services are delivered sustainably and in the best interests of the residents of Gauteng.”
The Democratic Alliance’s health spokesperson, Jack Bloom, disputed the department’s handling of the figures, and said it was masking the true state of its financial affairs.
Bloom said the department had used “accounting tricks” to obscure its financial position.
“Their financial situation is so serious that National Treasury has written to them to provide reasons why they should not be put under administration,” Bloom said.
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He said that as of 26 January, he was projecting underspending of R725 million in the 2025/26 financial year, which ends on March 31.
“This is according to the Gauteng Finance and Economic Development Department in an official written reply to DA questions,” Bloom said.
“National Treasury has only approved a conditional rollover of R261 million of the unspent funds, so R463.5 million will be returned to Treasury.”
He criticised the underspending while hospitals deteriorate, vacancies go unfilled, suppliers remain unpaid and equipment shortages persist.
“It is shameful that the GDoH is plagued by poor financial management and has not had a permanent Chief Financial Officer for more than three years,” he said.
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