By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterTHE MINISTRY of Health says it needs $4.5 billion to pay off debts incurred over recent years, as well as to alleviate a shortfall in funding faced in the current fiscal period.
Speaking during Tuesday's sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Grace Allen-Young, Permanent Secretary in the Health Ministry, revealed that the Ministry was in need of $3 billion to settle its debts alone, including a roughly estimated $800 million for unremitted statutory deductions and $137 million to suppliers of pharmaceuticals.
Mrs. Allen-Young put forward the $3 billion figure when pressed by Audley Shaw, PAC chairman about the depth of the financial crisis within the Ministry.
"The information that we have compiled indicates that would be what would clear our debts," a reluctant Mrs. Allen-Young told the committee. She noted that the Ministry had suffered from a limited budgetary allocation for the 2003/2004 financial year. The Ministry, she said, had estimated it would require $11 billion to operate efficiently this year.
BUDGETARY ALLOCATION
"You see, from the (budget) we did in fact get $9.5 billion. There is a gap, therefore, this is, in fact, affecting our ability to provide services," she said. Of the budgetary allocation, the Ministry has so far received $6.6 billion.
But, according to Mrs. Allen-Young, there have been increases in salaries and a massive jump in the Ministry's wage bill, from 57 to 85 per cent.
SERVICES
The Permanent Secretary indicated that the resulting shortfall has primarily affected payment for supplies and contracted nutritional, janitorial and porter services.
In the Auditor-General's report for the financial year 2001/2002, several regional health authorities were cited for not paying statutory deductions, which include education and income tax, among them the South East Regional Health Authority, which owed $686 million for October 2000 to March 2002.
That health authority has since paid over $308 million. Also noted was the North East Regional Health Authority which had owed $167 million up to March 2002, but has now cleared $92 million.
The Health Ministry is among a myriad of public entities reeling from a financial crunch, in Government, that has already been marked by the half-billion dollar debts of the Ministries of Transport and Works and of National Security. In October it was revealed that $43 million was also owed to lawyers providing legal aid services within the Ministry of Justice.
During yesterday's PAC meeting, committee member Mike Henry suggested that action be taken in light of the information received.
"I am recommending that the committee request this matter be addressed as urgently as possible because it can only lead to increasing deterioration of the health services," he said.
The committee requested that the Ministry provide the PAC with a breakdown of the needs that would be addressed by a further $3 billion injection.
The Ministry is expected to meet with the PAC again on February 17 next year.
