Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department saved almost R400 million in 2009 after re-engineering its Audit and Risk Management Unit and Supply Chain Management to root out corruption, wastage and theft.
Delivering his Budget Vote on Thursday, MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the department together with KZN Treasury is working on a three-year-turn-around plan aimed at bringing the budget to balance by the financial year 2011/2012.
"We have used all the means at our disposal to curb wastage, theft and fraud, to improve revenue collection measures and to strengthen our internal control measure."
The department is also expected to increase its own revenue from R153 million to R215 million in 2010/11.
"The anticipated increase relates mainly to fees for board and lodgings in respect of personnel utilizing the department's boarding facilities, and to patient fees," Dhlomo said.
Turning his attention to one of the province's most critical issues, the fight against HIV and Aids - Dhlomo said there will be a R377 million increase in the HIV and AIDS grant which will be used mainly to improve the uptake of patients receiving ARV therapy.
"For the HIV positive people we also have 32 roving teams which travel to Primary Health Care Clinics to speed up the scale of ARV treatment. This approach was piloted in UMkhanyakude District and reduced the waiting lists completely.
"We will launch the provincial HIV counseling and Testing (HCT) campaign at UMgungundlovu District. The department aims to cover over 3. 5 million people over a period of 14 months. Currently, the department has 335, 148 people on treatment and plans to target 470 472 in 2010/11," he said.
