sahr2001 - Health Systems Trust

7 • Annual Reports and the Public Finance Management Act
Authority. This report is required for the relevant legislature, the media and
the public. The annual report and audited statements must fairly present the
state of affairs of a department, its financial results, its performance against
predetermined objectives, and its financial position as at the end of the
financial year concerned. The annual report must include particulars of any
material losses through criminal conduct and any unauthorised expenditure,
irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure that occurred
during the financial year.
It is required that the annual report include information regarding the
Department’s efficiency, economy and effectiveness in delivering outputs and
achieving its objectives/outcomes against measures and indicators set out in
the strategic plan for the year under consideration.
With the above paragraph in mind the following recommendations are
proposed to enhance the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the
Department:
1. The national Department of Health conducts a strategic planning
session to determine a new 3-year (according to the PFMA) strategic
planning process. The nine provincial Accounting Officers and/or Chief
Financial Officers should attend this planning session. Each of the
provinces should then conduct their own provincial strategic planning
session in line with the national plans. This process should be aimed at
standardising data, planning, quarterly reporting performance measures
(each province uses the same indicator for the same function) and
annual reporting. Also the data compilation and information on
monthly budget reports from Vulindlela should be standardised in order
to share information electronically.
2. Clearly defined strategic objectives be determined in the same format
and measurements for comparisons.
3. The objectives must be reflected in the annual budget and reported on
in the quarterly reports and be the basis for the annual reports.
4. Workshops should be conducted to determine meaningful, measurable
performance measures/indicators that can be applied uniformly by all
the Health Departments. This will assist in assessing the future reports
for 2001/2002.
5. The successes or failures in meeting the strategic objectives should be
highlighted in the annual report.
6. The national and provincial reports should be standardised using the
format of the Gauteng Annual Report as the model.
7. Systems should be introduced in order to have the necessary information
available for reporting without having to search at the end of financial
year (effective database information) with monthly reports as the basis.
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