Improve financial, procurement management systems - Dev partners tell MoH
This year’s Ministry of Health Summit opened in Accra yesterday, with a call on the Ministry of Health (MoH) to improve on its financial and procurement management systems to ensure that more was spent on direct services.
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The occasion also marked the celebration of World Malaria Day (WMD).
The Ghana Mission Director of the USAID, Mr Andrew Karas, made the call on behalf of development partners in the health sector at a ceremony marking the opening of the health summit and launch of World Malaria Day in Accra.
“Ghana has invested in programmes aimed at strengthening public financial management. However, significant institutional, policy and system weakness continue to manifest themselves limiting the impact of these reforms”.
WMD/Health Summit
The celebration of this year’s WMD which falls on April 25 every year coincided with the annual health summit instituted by the MoH to take stock of achievements and challenges in the health sector and help to chart the way forward.
The theme for the WMD was “End malaria for good: Invest in malaria”, while the theme for the one-day health summit was “Working together towards universal health coverage, consolidating the gains of the health-related MDGs”.
Mr Karas, who was the guest of honour, said “in these days of ever greater fiscal constraints, it is even more vital that we make sure every cedi is spent well and improved public financial management will be the key”.
He said recent audit findings in the sector had raised concerns over procurement practice, unearned salaries being paid and ineligible expenditure.
He said the development partners were committed to working with the MoH and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on the need for financial management reform in the sector.
He also said recognising the complexity of issues in the health sector, the health development partners had focused their policy dialogues and engagements on eight priority areas, in an effort to reduce transaction costs, streamline policy dialogue and focus programming in the health sector.
The areas include the expansion of coverage of the Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS) programme, human resource management, implementation of the MDG Acceleration Framework Strategy, strengthening of public financial management, health financing and emergency preparedness.
Candid views
The Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, who chaired the ceremony, commended the MoH for doing an introspection of its activities and called on stakeholders to be candid so as to help the sector work on its challenges.
He also commended the business community for supporting the campaign against malaria.
The Member of Parliament for Krachi East, Mr Wisdom Gidisu, who is the Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, said as an oversight body for the ministry, the committee was concerned about the inability of the ministry to achieve the MDGs in the health sector.
Challenges
Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, in an address to open the summit as well as launch the WMD, said what was currently seen as a challenge in the sector was the issue of equity, as the sector was not bold enough to implement policies that would make deprived areas attractive to young and enterprising health workers.
He noted that leadership and supervision also appeared to be a challenge that needed to be confronted as poor performance in health facilities could be linked to weaknesses at the national and regional levels.
The President of UT Holdings, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, was introduced at the event as the malaria ambassador for the MoH. Among his duties, he will solicit funds from the business community for malaria intervention programmes.
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