Gauteng MEC of Finance Barbara Creecy says that over R47 million was paid to NGOs to take care of mentally ill patients.
Speaking at the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearings on Tuesday, where she gave evidence, Creecy says only three NGOs did not receive money.
Precious Angels NGO received over R1 million, Takalani received R88 000, Mosego received over R13 million and Sharma House was given over R2 million.
Some of the NGOs at the centre of the scandal which saw patients moved from Life Esidimeni to them, have however claimed that they were never paid.
Precious Angels had one of the highest death counts. The owner of the NGO, Ethel Ncube, testified that she was not paid for three months by the Department of Health in order to take care of patients.
Although Mosego NGO received R13 million, families testified that the NGO was not in a proper condition to take care of patients.
Creecy’s testimony comes after former MEC of Health Qedani Mahlangu insisted that the department ended its Life Esidimeni contract because of financial constraints.
However, Creecy said that they had not opposed the move of the patients. “If you want to transfer patients from Life Esidimeni to state institutions you can do that, but you cannot diminish quality service. If you think you can do this more cost effectively in-house, that’s fine. But the department should ensure that the re-prioritisation of funds doesn’t affect the quality of services.”
Tough financial times
Creecy further explained that after the budget meeting with the provincial premier and other MECs, the Department of Health was asked to return to the meeting and say whether they needed additional funding and state what the funding would be used for.
She said when the department returned, they were given additional money. They never mentioned a need to cut costs in mental health institutions.
Creecy explained that the emphasis to the department during the engagement in the premier’s budget meeting was on quality of services, not on cost savings.
“Even in tough financial times, we always maintain spending on social services because we understand how many people in our province depend on it,” Creecy said.
She said the Gauteng Health Department had a lack of financial control and mismanagement of funds.
Earlier, she revealed that the department was in debt of about R1.4 billion before 2014 and that it was not paying for services, hence treasury had put the department under administration.
Watch below:
