MOH, GHS meet with sector agencies to formulate 2013 budget

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is meeting with its agencies and institutions to review the 2012 budget and discuss the various loopholes in order to formulate a justifiable budget for 2013.

The meeting, which opened on Wednesday, would also examine critical areas of new recruitment of human resource within the health sector notably the right caliber of personnel for specific roles to prevent automatic redundancy.

Mr Sylvester Anemana, Chief Director of MOH,  said there had been particular weaknesses where cases such as deaths, retirement and desertion of posts had not been reported by the various Human Resource Managers, leading to a huge loss of government revenue.

He said the review of the human resource aspect would therefore ensure that in the 2013 budget the health sector got its actual staff strength.

Mr Anemana explained that the meeting was a critical requirement to the preparation of the entire sector budget therefore it was important that all aspects were discussed thoroughly before its presentation to Parliament.

The meeting was held in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service and would have presentations from human resource managers from the various health agencies and institutions across the country on the justification for new recruitment.

Mr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, Director, Human Resource for Development, MOH, said various adjustments would be needed in the 2013 health sector budget in terms of remunerations as the cycle kept changing owing to salary increases under the Single Spine Salary structure.

“Therefore we need all hands on deck to formulate a justifiable budget to enhance our operations,” he said.

Mr Appiah-Denkyira said the sector needed a strengthened budget to be able to perform efficiently in health care delivery in Ghana.

Source: GNA