Pretoria - The Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development is to physically verify all of its employees to validate the number of workers in the department.
This follows the auditor's report for the 2008/09 financial year, which found that an amount of R7.1 billion had been paid to staff who no longer worked there.
The employees who received the money could not be found as the Persal system had not been updated. This resulted in employees whose contracts had expired still being reflected on the list of employees.
Department spokesperson Mandla Sidu said personnel information would be continuously updated to validated employees.
"As part of reducing expenditure, limitation of overtime and recruitment of competent and skilled financial managers and training of existing ones will also be implemented," he said, adding that a physical verification of all assets was also currently underway to ensure all assets were accounted for.
In an effort to strengthen financial controls, the department has put in place interventions to ensure that it achieves a clean audit.
Sidu said the department was currently implementing short-term interventions, including asset management, supply chain management, payroll management, budget planning and expenditure monitoring.
In terms of procurement and contract management, the department said it would maintain, update and review a register of financial interests so as to safeguard the conduct of department's officials against its interest.
"All officials will also be requested to annually declare their interest in order to improve controls over possible conflict of interest," said Sidu.
The department will also improve monitoring of compliance with procurement policies and procedures, and also perform a risk assessment on procurement.
The department, in conjunction with Treasury, will also manage its cash flow to address accruals as well as current supplier payments.
All managers will be encouraged to attend a change management course and enforce strict financial controls in their units.
