Question NW1789 to the Minister of Health
30 July 2018 - NW1789
Kopane, Ms SP to ask the Minister of Health
(1)Whether the North West department of health has ever spent any Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Conditional Grant funds on the procurement of ambulance services; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) why, (b) in which financial year(s) was the conditional grant used to procure ambulance services, (c) which ambulance services were procured, (d) at what costs to the provincial department and (e) what are the terms of the contract in each case; (2) whether the provincial department paid the invoices of Buthelezi Emergency Medical Services in full even though it has been found that the service has been overcharging and that the invoices were not in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, Act 1 of 1999; if so, what are the relevant details in each case?
Reply:
(1) (a) Money was spent from the Conditional Grant for the Inter Facility Transfer of patients in the province.
(b) In the 2016/17 and the 2017/18 financial years.
(c) The service procured was for inter facility transfers, that is the moving of patients between health facilities.
(d) The ambulance services procured were for inter-facility transfer of patient and for the financial years mentioned above the costs were as 2016/17 - R45,188,078 and 2017/18 - R207,531,593-50 by March 2018 with other invoices submitted by the service provider for payment amounting to R174,064,224-21, however subject to verification. The contract was for the movement of patient from one health facility to the next so that the patient could get a better level of care. This is for the movement of Priority One, two and three patients.
(e) It is an order based contract.
(2) Some of the invoices were paid in full. When invoices were verified it was noted that some were overcharged. An investigation is underway to try to recover the costs.
END.