The Director General of the North West Provincial Administration has characterised social media attacks on Dr Lekalakala as a smear campaign that seeks to derail him from acting against cases of corruption that have emerged involving some official in the North West Department of Health.
Lekalakala is currently a Head of Department in the Department of Health in the province.
Some individuals took to social media attacking Lekalakala for being appointed as Head of Department while not meeting minimum requirements. They also accuse him of not having experience in senior management and allegedly opened a case of fraud and corruption against him.
Sebego says Lekalakala was found to be fit and proper for the post and met all the minimum requirements for the post both in terms of qualifications and experience.
He is a seasoned administrator with a wealth of experience in Health and well qualified for the post.
The Director General commends Lekalakala for having brought accruals that were getting out of control down in the Department of Health since his appointment.
She says that in terms of the Public Service Act and the Premier’s directives on fighting corruption and fraud, the,Heads of Department have a duty to institute consequence management against any official who is guilty of misconduct.
Sebego says she is aware that the department has embarked on forensic investigations during the last few months starting in July 2017. This was necessitated by the anonymous tips sent offices of the Department of Health.. It was opportune to go into the matter of these cases particularly because the Premier in his 2017 State of the province address had announced elaborate measures to deal with fraud, greed and corruption.
According to Lekalakala, preliminary findings have indeed identified numerous cases of clear cut mal- practices, including collusion between service providers and officials of the Department.
Lekalakala says the modus operanti is often the same, it involves by-passing SCM and Finance Processes and Procedures.
Some of the forensic investigations findings point to the following transgressions which the department will follow up:
- Inflation of prices by services providers, in cohorts with the department officials to defraud the department
- Manipulation of goods purported to be received at the district level to conceal short deliveries, again with the aim of receiving financial benefit at the expense of the department
- Clear cases of fictitious quotes, from willing suppliers, in order to justify prices that provide no economic benefit whatsoever to the department. Often it is the internal official who plays the central part in deceiving the department.
“The department is in possession of copies of the forensic investigation findings, and is in the process of finalising the disciplinary actions again the identified officials
The department has to date found that (8) and two of which are senior managers in the department with the first case going for full hearing on the 29-01-2018. The rest of the cases will be dealt with over the whole of February 2018.” Says Lekalakala.
Lekalakala concluded that the recommendations further necessitate opening criminal charges against the very service providers that we had entrusted in serving our communities
For enquiries contact:
Dr Keneilwe Lydia Sebego
Tel: 018 388 3040
Cell: 072 986 6938
E-mail: ksebego@nwpg.gov.za
