The remedial action proposed by public protector Kholeka Gcaleka regarding delays in completing repairs at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital after a fire damaged damaged a section of the facility in April 2021 deserves support.
Among the most significant is the instruction that Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi authorises skills assessments and performance review mechanisms for personnel within the Gauteng department of infrastructure development (GDID) who are involved in public procurement and capital infrastructure project management.
The objective is to strengthen human resource capacity so that officials are able to perform their responsibilities in an efficient, collaborative, accountable and quality-driven manner.
In her investigation, the public protector found there was a chronic lack of proper co-ordination and poor project management. There were also repeated disputes and bureaucratic friction between the GDID and the Gauteng health department, which were primary contributors to the delays.
Gcaleka also noted with concern a recurring trend or pattern of lack of coordination, and inefficient use of public resources between GDID, as an implementing agent for government capital infrastructure projects, and its client departments in Gauteng, resulting in costs escalating.
The public protector’s recommendation strikes at the heart of a problem that has plagued many state infrastructure projects: inadequate technical capacity, weak oversight and poor execution.
She said these inefficiencies were either an indication of a system that was compromised to enable corruption, a lack of capacity and capability, or both.
The public protector’s recommendation strikes at the heart of a problem that has plagued many state infrastructure projects: inadequate technical capacity, weak oversight and poor execution.
The work at the hospital is incomplete. The public protector noted that while some clinical areas such as the accident and emergency department in Block 1 South and Block 2 have been restored through strategic interventions and donor support from Gift of the Givers and Solidarity Fund, major structural repairs in Block 4 and the parking area of the hospital, which were severely damaged by fire, remain incomplete.
She said even after the completion of ongoing fire remedial work by the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the mandatory facility-wide fire compliance is unlikely to be met by the hospital as it remains unfunded due to financial constraints on the part of the provincial health department.
She said such delays erode public trust in the government’s ability to deliver public infrastructure and compromise service delivery.
Equally important among the remedial actions is her directive that Lesufi subject all supply chain management and financial management officials within both the Gauteng DID and the department of health to ongoing risk-based lifestyle audits, conducted in collaboration with the Special Investigating Unit. She said this was to ensure clean and open governance in Gauteng.
The outcomes of these audits are to be reported to the department of public service and administration.
These remedial actions, provided they are not challenged or opposed by the premier or any affected parties, should be welcomed by the public.
They show that the public protector acknowledges that some officials entrusted with managing critical infrastructure projects may lack the necessary competence and capacity to execute their duties effectively.
However, the call for lifestyle audits sends an equally important message that where there is unexplained wealth, there must be accountability.
