Letter from the Minister of Health dated 5 October 2004 to the Speaker

of the National Assembly, in terms of section 65(2)(a) of the Public

Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1959), explaining the

delay in the tabling of the Annual Report of the Department of Health

for 2003-2004:

Dear Madam Speaker

I write to you to submit my Department’s Annual Report for the

Financial Year 2003/04, in terms of Section 65(2)(a) of the

Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999). I

want to express my sincere apology for the late tabling of this

Report.

As you might be aware, the building where my Ministry and the

Department are housed, has been experiencing physical structural

problems over the last five months. The problems ranged

from constant waterpipe-bursting, fire threats, telecommunications

and internet breakdowns and other interruptions.As a result

of these problems, our staff had to be constantly evacuated from

this building whilst the problems were being addressed.

As I indicated, we experienced this situation over a period of

about five months. This consequently impacted very negatively

on our functioning as the National Ministry and Department of

Health. As I write to you now, my officials have been scattered

and are housed in three different buildings which are not even

located within the same vicinity. This again continues to impact

very negatively on our functioning.

It is in this background that our timely processing of our 2003/04

Annual Report was severely affected, and hence the delay. I am

glad however, to mention that despite the problems and hurdles

mentioned above, we were able to produce the Report which is

now ready as I am accordingly submitting as enclosed.

I trust that you and Parliament will accept my apology.

Kind regards