THE Gauteng health department has halted the filling and advertising of all vacant posts, although it has more than 20 000 such positions. Department head Sybil Ngcobo wrote to all senior officials in the department last month, telling them to "put in abeyance" the filling and advertising of posts, including contract posts, until further notice. In the letter she said that due to the challenges the department was facing regarding the cost of compensation of employees, an analysis into the overexpenditure in respect of personnel compensation was being completed. About half the vacant posts are for nurses and clinical professionals, including doctors. Gauteng hospitals need 8 974 nurses and 1 417 clinical professionals. The department has 21 923 unfilled posts, including administration, support and management. Mmakgosi Mosupi, the department's chief director of information and communications technology, said not all vacant posts were funded. A senior official in the provincial government said the "freezing" of posts also applied to nurses and doctors, which affected service delivery in already understaffed hospitals. However, the department said a circular was sent to all managers of institutions requesting submission on all critical posts that needed to be filled. Department spokeswoman Zanele Mngadi said this list would be considered by senior management and essential posts would be authorised accordingly. This meant that all facilities would have their critical posts or post-filling plans approved and would be at liberty to fill them as the need arose. The filling and advertising of posts now vested with Ngcobo. She would approve them only if she was satisfied statutory requirements necessitated it and if public peace and order were threatened. Senior managers who wanted posts filled in their departments would have to prove that a loss of life might occur and that a delay in filling a post could result in a substantial financial loss to the department. Proof should be provided that appointments were crucial and exceptional. Mngadi said 80% of the department's expenditure was related to the personnel budget or staff costs. Such expenditure was partly caused by the increase in the number of healthcare professionals recruited, which exceeded the annual target for the 2007-08 financial year, and the implementation of a 10,5% annual salary increase, she said. Mngadi said hospitals would be able to prioritise posts to be filled in line with the recommendations that would come from the definition of service packages, to be completed at the end of March next year. Any other critical vacant posts would have been considered beforehand, she said. Meanwhile, the department's deputy director-general, Obakeng Mooketsi, said the department had turned down the acquisition committee's decision that approved the extension of scope of the project management unit contract amount by R138m. The unit oversees all department projects and was criticised for relying heavily on consultants who cost millions of rands. Mooketsi said the department decided not to approve the decision, and instead authorisation was granted for essential work within priority projects to continue within the available tight budget, as long as they were budgeted for. He said it was decided to use what amounted to cost-effective measures to deal with problems within the department.

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