Jigawa State Government financed only 18 out of 33 Ministry of Health capital projects contained in an approved budget of 2024 between January to September this year.
This was contained in a document for analysis of 2024 third quarter health sector budget performance by Jigawa Health Partners supported by Lafiya Project funding by Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) which was obtained by Online Tribune in Dutse the state capital.
The document was presented at a meeting between the Jigawa Health Partners, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and Media working towards the improvement of Healthcare delivery and the management of Jigawa State Primary Healthcare Agency and Jigawa State Contributory Health Care Management Agency (JICHMA) in Dutse.
The presentation made by the executive director of the Jigawa State Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Accountability Forum (JiMAF), Comrade Isah Mustapha said the discovery was made during analyses of the 2024 Quarter 1-3 Health sector budget performance to appraise the level of government investment into the provision of healthcare in the state.
According to the findings “out of 33 capital projects and programs made provisions in the state military of health, only 18 received funds between January to September while the remaining 15 (such as psychiatric hospital, Ophthalmic Unit in some General Hospitals, Family planning, etc.) received zero releases”.
Comrade Isah Mustapha attributed to low budget performance in the Ministry of Health and other ministries and departments in the state to none or delayed project submissions from the side of the ministries and parastatals resulting in low performance in the the budget.
“The Overall state budget performance stood at 174.828bn (45.6%). A further breakdown reveals;
Greater performance of the recurrent expenditure component (Personnel and other recurrent) as at third quarter, from 41.808bn in Q2 to 72.589bn Q3.
Significant increase in the capital expenditure, rising from 49.797bn in Q2 to 102.239bn representing 40.2%.
The Partners can not ascertain the actual expenditure of IMPACT projects”.
He added that “The 2024 Q3 budget performance analysis, further reveals that, the budget undergoes series of transformation, (Supplementary and budget review) notable changes were movement of funds from capital to recurrent in order to finance contingency transfers, legal, service and Ministry of Power”.
“An Appraisal of health sector budget performance the trend analysis of health sector allocations in the last 8 years is generally inconsistent, it range between 10% to 15.7%. Apart from 2022 and 2023 financial years, the state has never reached the 15% Abuja declaration between 2017 to date. The 2024 allocation to health sector is the least in the last 8 years”.
The executive director stated further that “Despite the state commitment in the signed Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF) document, the overall allocation to health sector dropped from 10.7% in the approved budget to 10.3% in the revised 2024 budget against the overall state budget. The approved budget allocation to health sector was fluctuating from the approved budget of 36.208bn to 41.208 in the supplementary budget, it suffered an adjustment to 39.457bn in the revised budget, Information of such reviews are limited to the executives. The capital expenditure suffered a budget cut of over two billion Naira, this might be attributed to low budget performance”.
There are some budget items that, continue to suffer abysmal or no release for years. Such as operational research, ophthalmic, PPM unit, others are Family planning, etc.) The budget allocation to JISACA should remain at the Office of the Deputy. However, their mandate should be transferred to Ministry of Health. There is late submission of returns by MDAs.
Health partners recommended that the Ministry of Health should ensure strict adherence to its procurement plan and conduct monthly review meetings of sector procurement plan, state government should ensure prompt and regular payment of ongoing projects at the beginning of the first quarter to facilitate budget performance and planning departments should be informed on any reviews that affect budget allocation, for data consistency and coherency.
“The Jigawa state government should honour its commitment to MAF document to ensure utilization of 90% of the health sector and allocation of at least 15 of the total state budget to the Health sector in the subsequent years, the state executive council should ensure that, all the MDAs access at least 15% of their capital budget in quarterly basis as enshrined on the performance bond, and the ministry of budget is advised to validate quarterly budget performance report prior to publication and government should deploy all the necessary strategies that will facilitate prompt and timely release of the budget.
The planning departments should develop strategies that will encourage program managers and technical officers on timely funds request for optimal budget utilization. Health Monitors CSOs should strengthen their community engagement efforts on community mobilization for ownership and sustainability of health services, programs, and projects.
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