Page 6 - DPSA - Service Delivery Report

NEWS IN BRIEF
Drone delivery takes medicine to new heights
The delivery of life-saving blood has been taken to new heights by the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) with the launch a new drone blood-delivery service.
Launched in May, the Tron Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drone, features a wing design suited for maximum effi- ciency and allows for long travel time with minimal power usage.
The drone has a range cover of over 100km and can travel up to 180km/h but can also travel as slowly as 60km/h if necessary, the SANBS said.
The drone is a highly specialised air- craft that will be used to transport blood from blood banks to hospitals.
Just like a helicopter, the Tron is capa- ble of vertically taking off and landing. Once in flight, it switches into a highly efficient aircraft.
In an emergency the blood can be de- livered to hospitals much faster and more efficiently.
According to the blood service, the Tron aerial vehicle will be a South Af- rican first, complementing the existing logistics infrastructure. It will continue to cement the non-profit organisation’s place as a thought leader and a cor- nerstone of the health care system in South Africa through the gift of life.
“We believe that this is an innovative step in the history of blood transfusion. SANBS is determined to improve rap- id access to life-saving blood products in rural areas through the use of drone technology,” said SANBS Chief Execu- tive Officer Jonathan Louw.
By using the drone, a two-way service will be provided to patients.
“Patients can receive emergency ‘O negative’ blood from one of our blood banks via drone. The same drone can then take that patient’s blood sample to the blood bank for comprehensive cross-matching and then safely and rapidly deliver compatible blood back to the patient,” said Louw.
The Tron’s cargo compartment is able to securely accommodate even the most fragile payload, up to 2kg, and actively cool it.
The Tron will fly at an altitude of 100m to hospitals as far away as 100km de- livering up to four units of life-saving blood.
– SAnews.gov.za Thursday, June 27, 2019
Audit outcomes for municipalities worsening
A large majority of the country’s mu- nicipalities continue to disregard Audi- tor-General (AG) Kimi Makwethu’s rec- ommendations, resulting in worsening financial positions, he has announced. Makwethu made the revelation while releasing the 2017/18 Consolidated General Report on the Local Gov- ernment Audit Outcomes in June this year. The AG audited 257 municipali- ties and 21 municipal entities during this financial year.
The report reveals that of the coun- try’s 257 municipalities, only 18 (8%) received clean audits – a decline from the previous year’s 14%. About 12 of these municipalities were in the Western Cape, while KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Eastern Cape each had one municipality with a clean audit.
Addressing reporters, Makwethu said: “Since the current local government administration took office, the gov- ernance issues affecting municipal- ities have consistently been flagged by them in various formats, including individualised meetings with the lead- ership and through the AG’s 2016/17 General Report, but the latest set of re- sults indicates that this constant advice has largely been ignored.”
According to the report, municipalities recorded a decreased irregular expen- diture of R25 billion, compared to R29 billion in the previous year.
In the report, Makwethu notes that ac- countability in local government contin- ues to decline.
“Of the audited municipalities, the au- dit outcomes of the 63 regressed while
those of 22 improved. Only 18 munic- ipalities managed to produce quality financial statements and performance reports, as well as complied with all key legislation ... This is a regress from the 33 municipalities that received clean audits in the previous year,” Makwethu said.
The AG also bemoaned the poor qual- ity of submitted financial statements and performance reports, saying these were crucial to enabling accountability and transparency.
Unqualified opinions on financial state- ments decreased from 51% from the previous year’s 61%. The AG reported that 92% of the municipalities recorded non-compliance with key legislation, an 85% increase from the 2016/17 fi- nancial year.
4 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 12 No.3 of 2019