‘Allocation to health sector in 2012 budget short by N91b’

A GROUP, Health Reform Foundation (HERFON), has picked holes in the Federal Government’s allocation to the health sector in the 2012 budget. It said the vote was not in line with the requirement of the first National Implementation Plan of Vision 20:20.

In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja, HERFON’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Lai Erinosho, said a brief analysis of the health budget and projected spending trends in the context of high maternal and child mortality rate, showed “the current federal health budget, like the ones before it, falls short of the quantity of resources and allocation structure directed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The total health budget growth reflects increases in recurrent costs and not the capital costs needed to reform the sector. Personnel costs constitute 77 per cent of the 2012 federal health budget.

“The budgeting process for health is mostly centralised at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Health. Involvement of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) headquarters in procurements for MDAs they supervise creates conflicts of interest and can compromise oversight function”.

HERFON suggested that these funds could be diverted to under-funded priority like research and public-private partnership development that could contribute to better maternal and child health outcomes.

The first Vision 20:20 NIP requires the government to invest a minimum of N148.4 billion in capital expenditure on health in 2012 budget.

But HERFON lamented that the capital component of 2012 health budget is N57.01 billion, N91 billion short. “The static capital spending is grossly out of place with our exploding population of 170 million people and the ever-growing pressure on the already over-burdened healthcare facilities in the country.

“The inclusion of vaccines on the capital expenditure budget is another example of the disconnection between professed policy goals and actual health spending trends, low political will and reversed priorities. The provision of vaccines for the prevention of many childhood diseases, responsible for deaths among the children under five years, is one of the best values for money in health spending today. Many vaccines cost less than one dollar and yet, confer immunity that provides for increased child survival and development of human capital.

The group, therefore, advised the Health Ministry and the National Assembly to do a thorough line activity analysis of the entire budget and identify wasteful or low priority activities from where money could be moved to priority areas, especially those that contribute to achieving the MDGs.