Accra, Feb, 15, - Government has
been advised to establish a strong financial sustainability plan that would
enable it to progress with the implementation of the Free Senior High School
(SHS) and the other social intervention programmes.
The advice forms part of
SEND-Ghana’s recommendations, after a research conducted on the equity in
resource allocations to education, health and social protection, and a scrutiny
of the 2018 Annual Budget to these sectors.
Mrs Harriet Nuamah-Agyemang, the
Programme Officer of SEND-Ghana, explained that, government’s proposal in the
2018 Budget Statement, to set up a voluntary fund to finance the Free SHS
Programme, lacked clarity, in terms of how much was being targeted. How that
target was going to be met, and how the initiative answered the question of
sustainability.
Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang stated at a
round-table organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) in
Accra, which attracted participants from the academia, Civil Society
Organisations (CSOs), Policy makers, implementers and the Media.
The meeting was to explore the
nexus between budget allocation and inequality, focusing on Education, Health
and Social Protection.
Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang said
government needed to answer questions on prioritisation and equity in these
three areas, stating that, the gaps at the basic level of education must be
adequately addressed in order to build a stronger foundation for Ghanaian
children.
She said, “in this respect,
enough funds should be allocated for basic education. In addition parents who
can easily afford to pay for SHS for their wards must be allowed to do so to
save funds to support poor parents to take their wards through basic
education”.
She said, the government must
also ensure that funds allocated were timely disbursed in their entirety to
strengthen the management systems of schools, so that the directorates of the
Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) could implement all
pro-poor policy interventions such as the Capitation grant, Free SHS and
examination subsidies among others.
The presentation by SEND-Ghana
further proposed that government increase allocation to capital expenditure
(CAPEX) in the 2018 Supplementary budget by earmarking significant proportion
of revenues from the extractive non-renewable sector and other sources such as
the Talk Tax, and ensure the judicious expansion of the GETFund of over GH₵928 million.
Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang said the
expansion of the GETFund allocation was necessary to address the
infrastructural deficit at the Basic and Senior High School levels, especially
as has been exposed by the implementation of the Free SHS.
On the health sector, government
was also urged to complete the reimbursement of the National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS) claims to health service providers, timely.
“This should be accompanied by a
financial sustainability plan to ensure that the National Health Insurance
Authority (NHIA) promptly pays health facilities for services rendered.
“Persistent delays in payment of
claims to these facilities cripple their ability to deliver quality services,”
she said.
The SEND-Ghana report, also urged
government to expedite action and follow-up on the report submitted by the
Chris Atim-led Independent Technical Committee, which came out with a clear
plan for improving upon the effectiveness and efficiency of the NHIS, which pay
a key role in health financing in the country.
She said it was also realized
that the 2018 budget statement, was silent on the suspension of the NHIS Capitation
programme in 2017, which had earlier been cited in the Ghana Health Service’s
(GHS) 2016 Annual Report as one of the solutions to guarantee timely release of
financial resources to health service providers.
Government was therefore asked to
review the NHIS Capitation programme alongside the 2016 Independent Technical
Committee’s Report for clear and sustainable payment implementation plan.
Mrs Nuamah-Agyemang, urged
government to enact a Social Protection Law to provide legal backing to the
“Social Protection Policy” and to regulate relationships among the key entities
working to achieve this common goal.
She also called on government to
work aggressively and expand the key interventions like the Livelihood
Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme to reduce extreme poverty among
the vulnerable groups in society.
She said a well-coordinated
social protection budgeting would enable the country to align its expenditures
on the sector and make progress in the Gross Domestic Product.
Dr Emmanuel Akwetey, IDEG
Executive Director, thanked the participants for their contributions, saying
that, although Ghana has made significant progress in her socio- economic
development and poverty reduction, there must be equity in budgetary allocation
to ensure sustained progress.
GNA
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