Parliament, Tuesday, 22 October 2019 – The Portfolio Committee on Health expressed concern about the performance of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA).
The SAHPRA was in Parliament to brief the committee on its annual report and financial statement for 2018/19. It informed the committee that it had a qualified audit opinion, with irregular expenditure amounting to approximately R1.2 million. The irregular expenditure relates to non-compliance with supply chain management (SCM) regulations, which emanates from a lack of capacity in its SCM unit, the SAHPRA says.
Responding to the concerns raised by the committee, SAHPRA said as a new entity it had inherited a dysfunctional organisation that was failing without any corporate service support.
Committee Chairperson Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the current SAHPRA team is trying to clean up the situation they inherited and that its challenges are not of its own making. The committee made the recommendation that the regulator should return in three or four months to brief the committee on its turnaround plan and progress in dealing with the governance issues.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, DR SIBONGISENI DHLOMO.
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