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Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper

Govt does not owe National Health Insurance Fund

The government has fulfilled all its obligations to the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) including the payment of all arrears.

The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, who stated this on the floor of Parliament yesterday, said releases from the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) into the NHIF stood at GH¢828. 3 million in 2013, and GH¢1.1 billion in 2014.

He said payment to the NHIF for 2015 was up to date.

Mr Terkper was answering a question posed by Mr Augustine Collins Ntim (NPP, Offinso North) on the measures put in place by the Ministry of Finance to ensure that reports on the releases of the NHIL were submitted to Parliament in accordance with Act 852.

The minister said in the recent past, the ministry had used the occasions of the annual budget estimates and mid-year reviews to report to Parliament on the status of releases of statutory funds, including the NHIL.

The introduction of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), he added, would help to improve accounting and reporting systems and, ultimately, the timely submission of and instant electronic access to reports on the NHIL.

ABFA

Answering another question on the status of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) of GH¢29 million allocated to the Ministry of Health in the 2013 budget statement to finance critical projects in the health sector, he said the release of the money was not made.

He explained that the Ministry of Health did not submit the request according to the Ministry of Finance's guidelines for making requests in respect of capital expenditure.

Furthermore, he said, the request was not supported by relevant documents.

"This notwithstanding, the Ministry of Finance released  GH¢8,791,771.16 from the contingency vote to the Ministry of Health for the payment of various projects," he said.

Correctional Centres

The minister was also quizzed on what steps the Ministry of Finance was taking to release adequate funds for the efficient running of correctional centres in the country.

The question stood in the name of Mr Justice Joe Appiah (NPP, Ablekuma North).

Mr Terkper said among other things that the ministry now made quarterly releases to the MDAs by issuing "budget allotment".

Once the release was made, he said, the allocations to the various departments and agencies were left to the ministries to determine according to their priorities.

"These are based on budget and cash ceilings. Thus the Ministry of Finance influences only the sector allocations at the budget allotment stage of the budget implementation process," he added.

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