ECape health finance chief suspended

The Eastern Cape health department has suspended its chief financial officer, Pumla Vazi, pending a probe into poor financial controls, a spokesman says.

The suspension follows the release of a damning Auditor General's report on the department's finances, but is understood to be not directly related to it.

Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the suspension, on full pay, was "precautionary".

"At this stage we are going to investigate," he said. "She has not been charged [with a disciplinary offence]."

Vazi has been in the post since 2007.

In 2008 she was one of a number of senior department officials arrested on fraud charges by the provincial commercial crime task team, and has since appeared in court. She was not suspended then.

In February this year the department announced it was R1.8 billion in the red, which it blamed largely on the cost of implementing the occupation-specific dispensation for health professionals.

Among its creditors then was Telkom, owed about R23 million.

Because of the debt, Telkom at once stage blocked incoming calls to the department's head office in Bhisho. Officials were still able to make calls out.

Earlier this month the Auditor General said in a report that the department had understated irregular expenditure for 2009/10 by R2.1 billion.

It had overstated employee benefits of R235.7 million by R8.8m because of miscalculations. It had failed to give adequate audit of backdated compensation for employees and arrears salaries of R404 million, as well as for allowances and bonuses of R219m.

It had also overstated basic salaries by R30.5m and staff debt by R5.9m.