Health head in trouble

The Eastern Cape director-general of Health Lawrence Boya is in trouble.

The Bhisho Legislature’s standing committee on Public Accounts says in a report tabled today that he was provided with an opportunity “to explain gross mismanagement in his department” but that his responses were “inadequate”.

The committee states that taking into account the “significance of the matters reported by the Auditor-General” Boya had failed to account for his department’s financial affairs for the 2007/08 financial year and should be charged with financial misconduct in terms of Section 81 of the Public Finance Management Act.

This followed, the committee states, because he had failed to convince them that there was “no wilful or element of neglect” in his failure to account properly for the department’s financial affairs.

If the Legislature adopts the report, Boya will be the first official to be charged under the provisions of the PFMA.