Treasury cuts K37bn from health budget

As calls for government to allocate at least 15 percent of the 2013/14 National Budget to the health sector increase, Weekend Nation has learnt that Treasury chopped the Ministry of Health budget by 46.3 percent.

The slashing of K36.8 billion (about $92m) from the proposed health budget of around K79.5 billion (about $198.7m) to K42.685 billion (about $106m) in the 2013/14 fiscal year has also forced it to trim some key allocations such as procurement of ambulances and training of health workers.

Apart from civil society demands for Parliament to allocate at least 15 percent of the National Budget to the health sector, the 46.3 percent chopping of the ministry’s budget also comes at a time several quarters have criticised the increase in government’s travel and Farm Input Subsidy Programme (Fisp) budgets which they say are prone to abuse for political gain.

In a submission to chairpersons of various parliamentary committees last week, Ministry of Health director of planning Hetherwick Njati said apart from trimming the allocation for health personnel training, the ministry has also been forced to squeeze its budget lines for day-to-day operations to free up resources for procurement of drugs and other crucial budget items.

“The total amount which Ministry of Health wanted to have in the 2013/14 financial year is K79.5 billion, comprising K45 billion for other recurrent transactions [ORT], K6.8 billion for development budget and K27.6 billion for personal emoluments,” said Njati.

Instead, he said the ministry has had its ORT budget trimmed to K10.8 billion, personal emoluments budget chopped to K26.7 billion while the development budget has increased to K7.2 billion.

“We have actually squeezed most operational issues. For example, we are supposed to purchase ambulances for all districts every year, but in the coming financial year, we don’t have that provision because of financial constraints.

“Our budget for training was K2.6 billion, but we now have K1.4 billion. This will continue creating gaps in our medical personnel and as a result, we may not be achieving all the targets set in the Health Sector Strategic Plan [HSSP],” said Njati.

There is just about K104.98 million increase in the health personnel training allocation in the 2013/14 National Budget on top of the K1.32 billion allocated for the same in the 2012/13 financial year despite the need to train more health workers.

Njati said while government is undertaking several projects in the health sector such as construction of health centres, there is need for more medical personnel to be trained to work in the new facilities across the country.

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Dr. Charles Mwansambo also confirmed that his ministry requested about K80 billion in the 2013/14 National Budget.

In an interview, the Health and Population Committee chairperson Paul Chibingu said his committee will push for transferring of funds from other budget votes such as that of internal travel and Fisp to the health budget when budget deliberations in the House reach the Committee of Supply stage where MPs have a chance to adjust the budget votes.

Chibingu is worried that failure to allocate at least 15 percent of the entire budget to the Ministry of Health would continue tarnishing the country’s image on meeting its obligations in the health sector.

“The health budget allocation for Malawi for financial year 2013/14 is still far below the Abuja target of 15 percent. An allocation of 6.5 percent to the health sector is still far off the mark. We have not even been able to maintain just the 6.8 percent that was allocated in the 2012/13 financial year,” said Chibingu.

However, Ministry of Finance deputy budget director Richard Perekamoyo said the health sector has been allocated 12 percent of the entire budget and not 6.5 percent as some of the allocations are in budget votes for councils and National Aids Commission (NAC).

“About K76.2 billion has been allocated to health as a sector. Police and the Army have clinics and there are allocations to all those areas in their budgets. We also have subvented organisations such as training institutions in the health sector.

“When all that is captured, it’s giving us 12 percent allocation to the health sector and not 6.5 percent,” said Perekamoyo.

In a petition delivered to Parliament last week, civil society organisations (CSOs) asked the legislators to compel Minister of Finance Dr. Ken Lipenga to realign the National Budget and allocate funds to the health sector by redirecting part of the K33 billion earmarked for local travel in 2013/14 financial year.

The internal travel budget has jumped from the approved K15.7 billion (about $40m) in the 2012/13 fiscal year to K32.8 billion (about $82m) in 2013/14.

The CSOs said such cuts and resource redirection will help Malawi to meet its commitment agreed alongside other African States in 2001 to allocate at least 15 percent of their budgets to health.

Some of the regional and international obligations pertaining to health, HIV and Aids management that Malawi has signed up include the 2011 United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and Aids and the 2001 Abuja Declaration and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).