Gauteng Health spends R94m on private lawyers
THE Gauteng Health Department blew more than R94 million last year on private lawyers and firms to defend legal claims against the department.
This was revealed by Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa in her written reply to questions by the DA’s Jack Bloom in the provincial legislature.
According to Ramokgopa, the spending on private law firms by her department was due to the exodus of legally trained officials in the department.
She said a total of six officials, including the chief director and five legal adminis- tration officers, had resigned, citing “personal reasons and better opportunities” outside government.
Ramokgopa said her legal services unit at present had 16 employees, comprising the chief director, director, deputy director, four legal administration officers, seven administration officers and two medical advisers.
She also revealed that due to the shortage of staff, those remaining in the department have now had to deal with heavy workload, with each lawyer handling in the region of 300 cases.
“It affects the unit greatly, in terms of ensuring that cases are prepared well in time, and that work is of an acceptable standard and presented to the MEC and the head of department timeously for approval and mandates,” Ramokgopa said.
She said the department had vacancies for 10 officers – two directors for contracts and legislation, four senior legal administration officers, three legal administration officers and one senior manager, legals.
Ramokgopa said her legal services unit was responsible for the management of litigation matters for and against the department as well as drafting and vetting of contracts, memorandums of agreement and understanding, service-level agreements, and agreements in general.
Legal services are also charged with overseeing governance matters in the department, such as the oversight role in the appointment of hospital boards and clinic committees, and training of the mental health review boards.
They also had to deal with labour-related matters and hospitals, as well as drafting memorandums for the attention of Premier David Makhura.
Ramokgopa said her department would soon place adverts to allow legally trained people to apply for jobs.
Bloom said he was very con- cerned that each of the department’s lawyers was handling about 300 cases, many of which were medical negligence cases that involve huge claims for compensation.
He said the department should not be spending R94m when most legal work could be done in-house.
“I also suspect corruption in the use of private legal firms that are probably grossly overcharging,” Bloom said.
He added that the DA was calling for a high-calibre, fully staffed legal unit to handle all health legal matters speedily and cost-effectively, including the avalanche of medical negligence claims.