Its Department of Health, which has often been in the red and sometimes can't pay its bills, has started taking some serious action against corrupt officials.

Perhaps the foundation for getting tough with health officials was laid in 2006 when the province's much-disliked health minister, Bevan Goqwana, was booted out by then MEC Nosimo Balindlela. The move, which made healthcare unions and watchdogs cheer, showed that it is possible to make tough decisions in government.

In February this year a couple of senior officials in the department had their salaries frozen after failing to declare their registrable assets.

All officials with interests in companies that could tender needed to let the department know who they were. This would help the department understand where the officials' true interests lay.

According to Daygan Eagar from the independent watchdog, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), "If officials do not declare their interests in companies which may tender for government business, it is difficult to check and avoid conflicts of interest arising.

"This creates a breeding ground for fraud and corruption." The officials were meant to declare their assets by April 30 2009, so it was disappointing that it took almost a year before their salaries were frozen, but this is still a step in the right direction.

Those who did not declare their interests need to be scrutinised. They should certainly be investigated along with every tender that these officials have had a hand in. The glimmer of hope becomes brighter.

Only weeks after this announcement was made, reports surfaced that Bhisho's hospital manager was being brought to book for "allegedly approving an invoice for services not rendered". According to department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo, the manager "was suspended late last year".

For fear of sounding like a Verimark advert: and that's not all. The same department has also reportedly suspended and charged three officials from Mthatha for conspiring to misrepresent qualifications. Kupelo has been quoted as saying: "We will not tolerate maladministration; any person found guilty, no matter who it is, will be dealt with. We take corruption seriously".

But the PSAM is not entirely convinced that the provincial Department of Health is getting its act together. In February, Eagar said that he was dismayed, but not surprised, "at reports that the Eastern Cape Department of Health has run up debt of R1.8-billion and will not be able to pay suppliers or occupational specific dispensation commitments to staff for the remainder of the financial year."

Eagar said that, for the past two years, the accountability monitor has been trying to get national government to intervene in the department's model of payments for specific occupations. Eagar was concerned that it would overspend, "yet, despite being forewarned, the department has done little to prevent the crisis".

As usual it's the little guys who suffer. The PSAM says small businesses and contractors that rely on income from the department are the first to be affected because they simply do not have the cash to keep going without being paid.

Moreover, Eastern Cape residents may soon find themselves without emergency medical care owing to the astronomical shortfall. At this stage it's unclear whether national government will step in and save this flailing department, but what we are sure of is that Kupelo means what he says when he talks about eradicating corruption.